
Class __..„ 

Book. : 

Copyright N° 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE 

Foursquare Christian 



OR 



The Fourfold Doctrine of the First 
and Great Commandment. 



% 4 BY 

rev. e:t. Gallon, ph. d., d.d. 



''Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
all thy mind, and with all thy strength," — 
Mark xii; 30. 



MONFORT & COMPANY 

CINCINNATI 

I905 



5 S\ 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 13 1905 

Copyright Entry 

CLASS (X XXc. No. 

/ 3 X¥/ f 

COPY B. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, 
in the year 1905, 

By Monfort & Co., 

in the office of the librarian of Congress 
at Washington. 



PREFACE. 

The Christian life is the best and happiest 
that can be lived on earth. It is the life 
to which God calls us. It is that which 
Christ makes possible to us by his death, 
and into which the Holy Spirit brings us, if 
we accept the divine grace offered us in the 
Gospel. The Christian accepts the truth 
as it is in Jesus. He finds spiritual and 
eternal life through trusting in Jesus. 
He follows the example set by Jesus, 
and finds this the one sure and safe 
path through life. The Christian is 
trustful and tranquil; loving and loyal; 
thoughtful and thankful; helpful and hope- 
ful. He makes the most of this world by 
trying to do the wil of God as long as 
he lives here. He makes the most of the 
next world by accepting from God's hand 
the free gift of eternal life through Jesus 
Chri&t the Lord. He has promise of the 
life that now is and of that which is to 
come. Of all possible ways of living, this 
is highest, holiest, happiest and best. This 
life is to be not one-sided, but complete, 
symmetrical, developed in each depart- 
ment, foursquare in experience, worship, 
belief and service. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

The Christian Life 9 

The Whole Life fob God 14 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

The Spirit and the Bride 19 

God's Call to Salvation 23 

What Is Conversion? 27 

The Beginning of Life 31 

What Must I Do to Be Saved? 35 

What Must I Do to Be Lost? 39 

Repentance Unto Life 44 

Growing in Grace 48 

"Always Abounding " 52 

The Conversion of Children 56 

The Imitation of Christ 61 

(s) 



6 Table of Contents. 

CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 

Page 

Confessing Christ 67 

Church Attendance 71 

Uniting With the Church 75 

Baptism 79 

Buried in Baptism 83 

Child Church Membership 87 

The Lord's Supper 91 

Prayer 95 

Family Worship 99 

The Use of the Bible 103 

Sabbath Observance 107 

Public Worship 113 

The Spirit of Worship 117 

CHRISTIAN FAITH. 

Authority in Religion 123 

Our Infallible Guide 127 

What is God? 131 

Christ the Eternal Son 135 



Table of Contents. i 

Page 
Sin and the Atonement 139 

The Resurrection of Christ 143 

Christ Exalted 147 

The Holy Spirit 151 

The Church 155 

Faith and Salvation 159 

Perseverance 163 

Immortality and Heaven 167 

CHRISTIAN SERVICE. 

Christian Morality 173 

Glorifying God 177 

Faith and Practice 182 

Easy to Do Right 186 

A Prosperous Soul 191 

Wings and Hands 196 

Watchmen on the Towers 202 

The Lord's Money 206 

Missions 211 

Temperance 216 



8 Table of Contents. 

Page 
Sabbath-school Work 221 

Young People 225 

Men's Leagues 230 

Woman and Her Work 233 

What Kind of a Church? 238 

Calls to the Ministry 242 

CONCLUSION. 

Personal Religion 249 

Do We Wish A Revival? 253 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

If a thoughtful and devout student of 
God's Word were asked what is necessary 
in order to become a Christian, he would 
promptly answer that one must have a per- 
sonal experience of the saving grace of 
Cod, that he must be born again by the 
Koly Spirit, that he must have a sincere 
faith in and love for Jesus Christ. This 
would be Scriptural and forceful, putting 
first things first and emphasizing the very 
truths taught to us by Christ in the Gos- 
pels. This lays the stress where we are 
taught in the Word of God to lay it. 
Whatever one is or is rot, whatever he has 
or has not, whatever he does or does not, 
he is not a Christian unless he haa been 
converted and has personally entered the 
kingdom of God. Except he be thus born 
again, or born from on high, so that he 
has the personal experience of a renewed 
and loving heart, he is, according to 
Christ's own teachings, outside the bound- 
ary lines of salvation. Without doubt h# 
who would be a Christian must love and 
trust Christ as his own Savior. The Chris- 
tian is one who loves God with his heart. 
(2) (9) 



10 The Foursquare Christian* 

But there is another side to the life of the 
Christian. He will worship God devoutly. 
He will use the ordained means of grace 
through which the divine life and blessing 
may be communicated to his soul. He will 
come close to God, day by day, coming into 
personal contact with him in prayer. He 
will read God's Word that he may learn 
his will. He will commune with God that 
his Spirit may guide him into the ways of 
spiritual life. He will attend God's house 
and listen reverently to the preaching of 
the truth and will engage in all the ordi- 
nances of public worship. He will confess 
Christ publicly, will receive baptism, and 
will come humbly to the Lord's Supper. He 
will delight in all the exercises, public and 
private, in whieh God may be worshiped. 
His life will be full of expressed reverence 
and he will be known as a worshiper of 
God. It is possible for one to have a zeal 
for the externals of religion without the 
inner grace of heart and life which they 
are means to express and to help. In such 
a case one is a formalist instead of a 
Christian. But he who is a true child of 
God will have the real root of the matter 
in him. He loves and believes in Christ, 
and loves and believes the truth, and he 
will love the Church and all that the 



The Christian Life. 11 

Church stands for, and will be known as 
an openly avowed follower of Christ. With 
his whole soul, in spirit and in truth, he 
will worship. The Christian is one who 
loves God with his soul. 

But there is a further side to the life of 
the Christian. He will receive the truth. 
He will accept the teachings of the divine 
Word of God. He will believe the doc- 
trines of the Gospel. He will know the 
truth, and the truth will make him free. 
He will worship God in truth as well as in 
spirit. He will take God's truth into his 
soul, and the Holy Spirit will use it for his 
sanctification. The Christian will have a 
reverent regard for sound doctrine. He will 
hold the form of sound words. He will take 
^od's Word as the inspired guide of his 
life. He will be jealous lor the truth of 
God and will not think that error is as 
safe and as good as truth. He will not say 
that it is immaterial what one believes. He 
will believe what God has revealed, and will 
not believe or indorse anything that con- 
tradicts it The Christian will be an evan- 
gelical believer. He will stand for sound 
doctrine. If he were this alone, he might 
be a mere dogmatist. It is possible for 
one to have a zeal for words and dogmas 
without a vital interest in Christ. In such 



12 The Foursquare Christian. 

a case theology may be made loveless. But 
the Christian loves and believes in Christ, 
and loves and believes the truth. The 
Christian is one who loves God with his 
mind. 

But there is still another side to the life 
of the Christian, for his life, like the city 
John saw in his vision, lieth four-square. 
He will be a good and upright and moral 
man in his life. He will obey the com- 
mandments of God. He will seek the help 
o*° the Holy Spirit day by day to live a con- 
sistent life. He will examine himself so 
that he may not bring reproach on the 
cause of Christ, or give enemies occasion 
to blaspheme. He will obey Christ and 
will serve him. He will be good. He will 
be moral. He will give. He will be tem- 
perate and pure and truthful and honest. 
He will let his light shine. He will not 
trust in his own morality, however. He 
will not be satisfied with his own right- 
eousness. His life, however, will be act- 
ually good and upright. If he were this 
atone, he might be a mere moralist. But 
he is one who loves and believes in Christ 
as his own Savior and his only hope, who 
loves and worships with God's people, who 
loves and believes the truth, and who loves 
to do God's will. His life is one of prac- 



The Christian Life. 13 

tical obedience and service. The Christian 
is one who loves God with his strength. 

Here are the four sides of Christian life 
as laid down in God'? Word. They are Per- 
sonal Experience, Reverent Worship, Evan- 
gelical Faith and Obedient Service. As 
laid down by Moses, and as repeated by 
Christ, these four elements are to be found 
in every Christian life. We are to love 
the Lord our God with all our heart, with 
all our soul, with all our mind, and with 
£.11 our strength. We are to remember the 
order of these injunctions, and we are to 
put first things first. 



THE WHOLE LIFE FOR GOD. 

No one should be satisfied with a one- 
sided or unsymmetrical life. In every part 
of the being we should seek to glorify God, 
by being what God would have us be. He 
who emphasizes some one side or depart- 
ment, leaving the olhers uncared for or 
undeveloped, is very imperfect and unsat- 
isfactory. 

One can not divide himself into parts 
after all. Each person is one indivisible 
being. We may speak of ourselves con- 
sisting of body and soul; but as soon as 
these are separated our earthly existence 
ceases. Body, soul and spirit make the one 
being, and we are to glorify God in every 
part of this unified being, and with the 
apostle are to pray that our "whole spirit 
end soul and body be preserved blameless 
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

The psychologist may, in his scientific 
analysis, consider man mentally as con- 
sisting of intellect, affections and will. 
From a scientific standpoint this may be 
permissible; but as a matter of fact and of 
life no one may be so divided. The man 
(14) 



The Mhole Life for God. 15 

thinks, loves and wills. Every intellectual 
act is some person thinking. Every out- 
going of the affections is some person ex- 
ercising love or hate, or some other feel- 
ing. Every act of the will is some person 
framing a purpose. Sin never existed in 
the abstract, but has always been the evil 
act or life of some sinful individual. 
Righteousness never was found in the ab- 
stract, but always in the life or action of 
some righteous person. So the individual 
may think and feel and will, but, actually, 
can not be analyzed into intellect, affec- 
tions and will. 

In seeking to live the good life we must 
beware that we do not make t'.e vital mis- 
take of thinking to please God by being 
£,o-)d in some spot, while the rest of our 
being is wrong and contrary to his wish. 
God Las no use for a divided life. The real 
mother before King Solomon cried out 
against the sword that would divide her 
babe, for she knew it meant death. We 
can not serve God aid Mammon. We can 
not cherish sin in any part of our being, 
and insist that the other parts are all right 
and that God should be satisfied. Unless 
we welcome and cherish the divine law of 
lift and love in every part of our being, 
we refuse it for a part, and in so doing we 



16 The Foursquare Christian. 

choose disease and death for a part of our 
life. In doing this we choose disease and 
death for our whole life, for we have vol- 
untarily banished God and his divine life 
from having full welcome and control. 

One man may say that he will live right, 
rut that he has no use for conversion, the 
church or God's service. No one can live 
right who chooses to be in such overt 
rebellion against God. 

Another may satisfy himself with an 
emotional enjoyment of what he calls re- 
ligion, and yet may have so little regard 
for the commandmencs of God as to break 
them without compunction of conscience, 
reminding us of Mr. Moody s words that 
"if a man will not live as he ought, the 
less he says about Jesus the better/' 

xVnother one may pride himself on his 
absolutely orthodox creed, and yet by an 
unlovely and cruel and persecuting life may 
bring religion into the disrepute which it 
acquired in the Middle Ages, so that we 
are led to think of the inquisitor as the 
most diabolical of men. 

Another may claim to be filled with such 
an exalted reverence and love and devotion 
and joy in reiigious life tbat he cares 
not for sober creed cr the c]<l doctrines, 



The Whole Life for God. 17 

and inveighs against the common and es- 
tablished truths of Christian doctrine. No 
personal experience which any one claims 
to possess can give him a right to reject 
the truths given by the inspiration of the 
Holy Spirit in the Word of God. 

The whole life is to be lor God. He 
who would be a child of God must seek 
and accept the personal experience of the 
new birth, must worship God in the ordi- 
nances which he has himself established, 
must believe the truths revealed to us 
from on high, and must live a life in 
obedience to the divine commandments. 
The whole life must be for God. The 
whole being must be consecrated to, must 
be indwelt by, and must be lovingly obe- 
dient to God. 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 



"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart. 3 ' — Mark xii. jo. 

* * • 

"With the heart man believeth unto 
righteousness." — Romans x. 10. 

* ♦ * 

"Ye must be born again/' — John Hi. 7, 

• w • 

"Grow in grace and in the knowl- 
edge of our Lord and Savior Jesus 
Christ." — 2 Peter Hi. 18. 



THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE. 

God is calling men and women to a saved 
life. This call comes externally and inter- 
nally. Both of these calls are important 
and essential. The voice of God may reach 
the heart, and a longing and readiness for 
help and guidance may be felt within; but 
there needs to be the voice from without 
by which the truth may be taught and the 
way be made plain. 

God called the Ethiopian eunuch when 
he put in his heart a readiness to read the 
words of the prophet Isaiah, and made him 
willing to know more about Christ and the 
way of salvation. But he might have gone 
on in darkness and ignorance if Philip had 
not been sent to hira to make clear and 
plain to him the way to find Christ. When 
the instructions and invitations of the 
evangelist came to him, he received his 
second, or external call. In this form the 
Bride, or the Church, with its holy ordi- 
nances, said "Come" to him, and the eunuch 
responded to both calls and gave himself to 
God in conversion and in baptism. No 
wonder he went on his way rejoicing. 
(19) 



20 The Foursquare Christian. 

God is calling every one to-day in our 
Christian land in one or the other, or in 
both of these ways. It is the duty of the 
Church to see that the call is unmistakably 
clear and plain, so that each person may be 
thrown upon his personal responsibility 
to heed and to obey the call that comes to 
the heart. We must not make mistakes 
here. 

As Christian people, members of the 
Church of Christ, we should make sure 
that, in some way, at least once, plainly 
and distinctly, the external call should be 
made to each individual soul in the whole 
community where we live. We take it for 
granted that people know it to be their 
duty to be Christians. They live in a land 
of Bibles and churches. The church-bells 
ring. Sabbath services are regularly held. 
The Gospel is preached. It would seem 
that none can fail to know the claims of 
God and the offers of life through Jesus 
Christ. But the human heart is very de- 
ceitful, and the suggestions of Satan are 
very plausible. Each person should be ap- 
proached personally and positively with 
the earnest invitation and demand, in the 
name of Christ, that sin be repented of, 
and Christ accepted and confessed as Sav- 



The Spirit and the Bride. 21 

ior. We should not be satisfied, as minis- 
ters or private Christians, until we are 
absolutely sure that every person in our 
community has been thus approached. 

We must be certain, too, that the Gospel, 
and not something else, is preached. It 
will not do to confine ourselves to Chris- 
tion ethics, or Christian doctrine, or even 
that which is edifying to Christian people. 
There must be the frequent call to the un- 
converted in the sermons preached on the 
Sabbath in our sanctuaries. In fact, there 
is a general agreement among the best 
preachers and teachers that in every ser- 
mon there should be enough, under God, to 
save the soul of any unconverted one who 
may be present and may give heed to the 
Word as preached. Thus, in every public 
service, the Bride of Christ must be always 
ready and always sure to give the invita- 
tion to eternal life. 

But the efficient influence is that internal 
call that comes from God's Holy Spirit to 
the heart. Without this the other is un- 
availing. There can be no real revival 
that is simply human-made. The conver- 
sions that are effected by mere human in- 
fluences lack the divine element which 
alone is availing to salvation. There are 



'22 The Foursquare Christian. 

spurious conversions, but they are all of 
them those in which God's Spirit had no 
share. We continually are led to realize 
our need of him for all that is real and 
abiding in spiritual life. Without him we 
can do nothing. The Church's continual 
dependence must be on the Holy Spirit. 
The invitation of the Bride must be given 
continually, lovingly and earnestly; but 
without the call of the Spirit her words 
will be unavailing. But let the Church be 
most careful that wherever the voice of 
God is heard in any human heart, her own 
voice shall follow up the invitation with 
loving and earnest insistence. 



GOD'S CALL TO SALVATION. 

The call of God to the saved life is so 
plain that it may be understood and obeyed 
by the young, the simple and the unlearned 
as well as by those who are experienced 
and cultured. The child may hear and 
heed it as readily as those of mature life. 
The peasant may understand and accept it 
as easily as the greatest philosopher and 
sage. 

Religion, as a matter of supreme neces- 
sity to all, is not beyond the ordinary com- 
prehension and reach. The loving and 
obedient heart is the prime qualification for 
those who would have saving relations with 
God. God makes the Gospel offer in ab- 
solute sincerity, and the conditions of ac- 
ceptance of it are not placed beyond the 
reach of any to w r hom It is offered. By 
putting it thus within the reach of all, does 
God reveal his appreciation of our weak- 
ness, his love, and his deep sincerity. The 
conditions of salvation are such that they 
can be accepted by even the smallest, the 
youngest, and the weakest of those whom 
he calls. 
( 23 ) 



24 The Foursquare Christian. 

When God says: "My son, give me thy 
heart," he does not make a demand for ma- 
turity of judgment, ripeness of culture, 
philosophical acumen, or fully developed 
powers of thought. He asks for the love 
of the heart, and this the little child can 
yield, and oftentimes is more ready and 
apt to yield than many who are greatly its 
superiors in knowledge and wisdom. Yet, 
possessing a loving heart, it may have the 
best knowledge, which is a knowledge of 
God and at least the beginning of wisdom, 
which is the fear of ihe Lord. There are 
some who think, however, that the child 
can not be a Christian. They imagine that 
one must be mature in life in order to be 
capable of making an intelligent choice of^ 
religious life, when, in reality, none are so 
far away from a wise choice as those who 
have come to a fully developed and mature 
life without having found a place for Christ 
in their hearts up to that time. God's con- 
dition is the loving heart which believes 
and welcomes and loves and obeys, and to 
the possession of this, wealth, culture and 
advanced age are, too often, great and in- 
surmountable obstacles. 

Religion is very simple, and it must needs 
be so, in order to be within the grasp of 
all who need it. In this respect we are 



God's Gall to Salvation. 25 

reminded of the vital, physical functions 
which are partaken of by all classes and 
ages and conditions, and for which God 
gives natural capacity and aptitude to the 
young just as certainly as to the mature. 
Thus, wreathing, digestion, assimilation, 
blood-circulation, sight, hearing, feeling and 
motion are attributes of childhood just as 
certainly as of manhood, and of the ignor- 
ant as truly as of the learned. So, under 
the guidance of God's Spirit, the child or 
the unlearned is as thoroughly capable of 
all that is necessary in order to be saved 
as is the most mature philosopher. 

Here is a great ocean steamer, almost 
ready for its trip across the Atlantic. With- 
out its aid the great General can no more 
cross the ocean than can the private soldier; 
the Admiral than the common sailor; the 
college President than the preparatory stu- 
dent; the trained athlete than the little 
child. The steamer makes the passage 
possible, and without it all are equally 
helpless. All that is necessary for any one 
is that he secure a ticket, and go aboard. 
It is not necessary that he understand all 
the art of ship-construction, the intricacies 
of navigation or the science of the appli- 
cation of steam. So, in order to secure all 
(3) 



26 The Foursquare Christian. 

the benefits of Christ's redemption, it is 
not necessary that one shall understand 
the whole problem of the mystery of evil, 
the exact theory of the atonement, and the 
best form for the statement of every truth 
of theology. All that is necessary for sal- 
vation is that the heart shall be given to 
God in simple trust in Jesus Christ, and 
that the divine grace shall be lovingly ac- 
cepted. 

When God's Word tells us that the things 
of the Spirit of God are spiritually dis- 
cerned, we are to depend upon it that this 
is exactly and literally true. Many people 
do not comprehend its truth in this mat- 
ter. Many believe that spiritual things are 
intellectually discerned, but this is no more 
true than it is that music can be seen. 
There must be the simple response of a 
loving and obedient heart to the loving call 
of the Heavenly Father. This is within 
the possibilities of every human heart that 
is ready to humble itself and open the door 
for the incoming of the Savior. Each hu- 
man soul is large enough to be a temple of 
the Holy Spirit. The soul that lovingly re- 
sponds to the knock of Jesus at its door, 
and bids him enter, is the one whose faith 
has saved it, and who has come into the 
possession of eternal peace and eternal life. 



WHAT IS CONVERSION? 

If one does not love God, he is an un- 
saved sinner, and lie will remain unsaved 
until there comes such a change in him 
that he does love God. This change is 
conversion, and, in order to bring it about, 
God has given us his Son and his Spirit, 
his Word of Truth, his Providence, his 
Church and all the means of Grace which 
we enjoy. 

God is unwilling that we should live on 
in a life which is devoid of love for him. 
He seeks to win us to himself. In his holy 
Word he tells us about himself. In Christ 
he personally reveals himself to us. In 
his Holy Spirit he pleads with us. In the 
Church his truth is preached and his in- 
vitations are repeated and urged upon our 
attention. In all the dispensations of his 
Providence and Grace he comes to us seek- 
ing to influence our iives and win us to 
his love. 

Those who yield to his gracious in- 
fluences and come to love him, know what 
it means to be converted. They have turned 
(27) 



28 The Foursquare Christian. 

from the old life. They love God. A 
change has come to thein, the most sig- 
nificant and important that can come to 
human hearts. However bad they were, or 
however good they were before, they did 
not love God. They were strangers to 
grace. They were among the unsaved. 

Some persons know when they were con- 
verted. They can tell the very moment 
and the very place. They Know what pas- 
sage of Scripture, what sermon or what 
providential dealing of God was used for 
their conversion. They remember how 
they were opposed to Christ before this, and 
the very attitude they took against the 
truth of the Gospel or the work of the 
Church. But now this is all in the past. 
They now adore and trust in the Savior, 
Tvhoin they once rejected. They now love 
to pray and to read God's Word, and they 
are grateful for even a humble place in 
the Church. A great change has come to 
them. They can say with the blind man 
whom Christ 1 restored to his sight: "One 
thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, 
now I see." They are conscious that a 
new experience has come to them, and that 
this experience is one in which they love 
God. It is a very blessed joy which fills 



What is Conversion? 29 

the heart that knows of such a personal 
transformation. 

Buti there are other converted persons, 
who do not know the time and the place 
when the change in their lives occurred. 
It has occurred, however, without doubt. 
They love God most sincerely. They live 
obediently and lovingly every day of their 
lives. They are reverent and trustful. It 
is a joy to them to do God's will, and they 
worship him and commune with him and 
love his house and his ways. These per- 
sons are undoubtedly converted, for they 
have all the marks of conversion upon 
them. These are not the eharacteristics of 
the unsaved. Those who are living in a 
mere state of nature, unsaved and uncon- 
verted, do not love God. When one has 
come to love God, wherever, whenever or 
however it may have been, he has expe- 
rienced all that is meant by conversion. 

There are some sensitive persons who 
are anxious about their soul's salvation, 
who say that they want to be Christians 
and hope to be, if only God will grant 
them his saving grace, who really love him 
and show that they do. These persons 
would gain great comfort from a realiza- 
tion of the fact that God's love is in the 



30 The Foursquare Christian. 

heart of only God's saved children. Lov- 
ing him proves that they have savingly ac- 
cepted of Jesus as their Savior, and that 
God for Christ's sake has pardoned their 
sins and accepted them as his children. 
No matter though they commenced to love 
him so early in life that they do not re- 
member when it was, the present fact is 
that they are God's loving, forgiven and 
converted children. 

To all who have not turned to God from 
their sins, in repentance and living faith, 
the loud and clear demand is made from 
on high that they shall cease their oppo- 
sition or their indifference and yield to his 
divine and saving grace. It is a terrible 
thing to slight the love of God, and to live 
on without faith and love in the heart 
This unbelief is the worst and most dan- 
gerous sin in the world. It fe the sum 
and substance of all sins. It is the un- 
willingness to obey, love, and trust God. 
It is rejection of him. From this every 
soul should turn at once and forever. 



THE BEGINNING OP LIFE. 

Christian life must hare a beginning. 
By nature we are all sinners, alienated 
from the life of God and guilty before his 
holy law. If we come into the new, saved 
life, there must be a change from what 
we are by nature. This change is of so 
marked nature that it is called by the 
striking name of the new birth. This 
name is most appropriate because the 
change is vital. It is of the very life. 

There is something mysterious about the 
new birth. It is accomplished by the in- 
fluence and operation of the Spirit of God. 
How It is brought about is not readily 
understood. But we see its effects and we 
know they are real. Christ illustrated it 
by the wind. No one can see the wind, 
but we can see the effects of the wind, and 
some very strong and substantial bodies 
go down before it. So it Is with human 
souls when God's Spirit takes hold upon 
them. 

The conversion of many a man has been 
a marvelous manifestation of the power 
of God. Many a soul can say: "I'm a 
(31) 



32 The Foursquare Christian. 

miracle of grace." Saul of Tarsus is a 
persecutor one moment, full of the deep, 
settled conviction that he ought to do 
many things contrary to Jesus of Naza- 
reth, and the next moment he is changed 
in mind and heart, crying out: "Lord, 
what will thou have me to do." This one 
conversion is an unanswerable argument 
in favor of Christianity as a supernatural 
and divine religion. But every conversion, 
whether so striking as this or not, is a 
coming of God into the human soul in 
such a way as to convince the judgment, 
purify the affections and change the life. 
Such a transformation as this may well 
be called by the name of the new birth. 
Christ himself so describes it. 

Here is a man who has been an unbe- 
liever. He has set himself against the 
truth and the person of Christ. He reads 
the Bible only for the purpose of finding 
objections to it. He reads religious books 
and papers, and listens to the preaching 
of the gospel only in an antagonistic frame 
of mind. His only religious conversation 
is in the form of argument against the 
gospel. He amasses a library of infidel 
books and pamphlets. But God's Spirit 
reaches him, it may be in some time of 



The Beginning of Life. 33 

bereavement when his heart is broken, 
and he accepts the salvation and grace and 
eomfort of Christ. He burns his infidel 
library and his life is dedicated to the 
service of God. 

Here is a man who has lived wickedly. 
He has trodden God's commandments 
under foot and has made himself a wreck 
and a curse. He has brought shame to 
himself and to his friends. He has been 
evil and that continually. He has become 
unattractive and hateful, and the promise 
and prospects of life have become dark- 
ened. He is a moral leper. He is dead 
to purity. Can such a one as this be 
saved? Yes, Christ can save even to the 
uttermost. God's Spirit finds him. He 
turns in penitence and faith for cleansing 
to the fountain that was opened for sin 
and uncleanness, and he is made pure and 
clean as a child of God. Hereafter he 
walks in the way of life close to the side 
of Christ and is kept by him, through 
faith, unto everlasting life. 

Here is a man who feels no need of 
Christ and who does not seek him. He 
i'o moral and has many excellencies of life 
and character. He is kind in his home, 
upright and honorable in business, and 
prides hir^self on his cleanness of life. 



34 The Foursquare Christian. 

But he is a stranger to God, does not 
know what it is to pray, is without per- 
sonal faith, and is utterly lacking in spirit- 
ual life. But God's Spirit reaches him. 
He conies to see himself a sinner, without 
God and without hope. He accepts Christ 
and enters upon a life that is beautiful in 
its humble service rendered to the Savior. 
Such cases as these are continually oc- 
curring. Men and women who are un- 
saved are reached and led to yield their 
hearts and lives to God. Once without 
love, they came to be loving-hearted and 
entered the kingdom of heaven in the sim- 
ple spirit of a little child. Christian life 
had a beginning. It was the new birth 
from on high in which they entered into 
the experiences of God's children. To this 
same experience of faith and love all are 
invited, as the Heavenly Father calls to 
them and says to them, one by one, "My 
son, give me thy heart." 



WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED? 

In one sense we can do nothing for our 
own salvation. In another and very impor- 
tant sense, however, we can do a great deal, 
and if we do not do it we shall remain 
lost forever. Even the infinite goodness of 
God will not undertake to save those who 
disregard his conditions and persist in in- 
difference and disobedience to his revealed 
will. 

In the sense of doing what is meritorious, 
and thus procuring for himself salvation, 
the sinner is helpless. At this point he 
is entirely incapable of accomplishing any- 
thing effective. Here attempting to do 
anything is deadly. He is guilty before 
the law. He is defiled by sin. He must 
realize his lost condition as a preparation 
for accepting the mercy of God in Christ 
Jesus. Until he comes to know and feel 
himself sin-stained and condemned and 
helpless, he will not give up his confidence 
in himself and look to Christ as his only 
hope. To try to make himself just before 
God were presumptuousness. It were ef- 
frontery. It would bear all the marks of 
(35) 



36 The Foursquare Christian. 

insanity if it were net altogether based on 
sinful ignorance. 

But while the sinner can do nothing 
meritorious, he can do what is appropria- 
tive. While he can not do anything to 
merit salvation, and make himself just and 
righteous in the sight of God, he can accept 
the salvation wrought out for him by 
Christ, and he can appropriate to himself 
the justification that is freely offered to 
all who do believe on Christ as their own 
personal Savior. The infinite mercy of 
God in Christ is pressed upon the sinner 
for his acceptance, and it is unbelief, and 
not humility, that prompts him to say that 
he can not believe and be saved. If un- 
der any form of delusion whatever, be 
that delusion one of a false philosophy or 
a morbid sentimental ism, he puts away 
the salvation procured for him and offered 
tc him by Christ, ha will go down to eter- 
nal death and ruin, and no specious plea 
will rescue him, when it is too late, from 
the consequences of his unbelief. 

The one who is sick may not be able 
to prescribe the proper remedy for his dis- 
ease, but he can permit the physician to 
examine him, can tell him how he incurred 
the sickness, and can take the remedies 
that are prescribed for him. The one who 



What Must I do to be Saved? 37 

is in prison may not be able to secure his 
own release, but he can let his advocate 
know all th8 circumstances, and can fol- 
low the directions he makes in securing 
his freedom. The pupil may not be able 
to teach himself the difficult branch he is 
studying, but he can be docile under in- 
struction, and can learn that in which he 
is directed by his teacher. The sinner can 
not provide for himself salvation, but when 
Christ offers pardon, he can accept it; 
when the fountain is opened for sin and 
uncleanness, he can wash and be clean; 
when the ransom price is paid by the Re- 
deemer, he may accept freedom from the 
debt of sin; when Christ stands before 
him ready and willing to bless him, he 
can bow in penitence and faith before him; 
when the door of grace is opened and God 
invites him to come in, he can enter and 
can have the blessed experience of a soul 
that has found eternal welcome to the Fa- 
ther's home of love. 

The simple, practical truth of the gos- 
pel is that the sinner to whom the gospel 
invitation comes can accept and be saved. 
Moreover, he must accept or remain lost 
and undone forever. Besides all this, it 
is his duty to obey God, in repenting of his 
sin, believing in Christ, and accepting 



38 The Foursquare Christian. 

salvation; and the neglect of this duty is 
the one sin that exceeds any other and all 
others in deadly power to destroy. We are 
to allow no sophistries to excuse us from 
simple obedience to God when he com- 
mands us to repent, believe, and be saved. 
It is our duty, for God commands it. It is 
possible for us, or he would not have com- 
manded it. Unless we obey, there is no 
hope for us in the universe of God. 



WHAT MUST I DO TO BE LOST? 

The Word of God teaches us, most clear- 
ly and unmistakably, that something posi- 
tive must be done to save men from their 
sin and its effects, but in order to be lost 
nothing more is necessary than to remain 
unsaved and go on to an unsaved eternity. 

It is as with one adrift on the rapids 
above Niagara Falls. In order to be sa^ved 
one must use the oars with all diligence, 
fighting against the terrible current, and 
working the way upstream. In order to be 
dashed over the falls it is only necessary 
to do nothing. Let the oars drop. Let the 
boat drift. Let the deadly current do its 
certain work. In order to be carried over 
the falls it is not necessary to do anything 
except to get in the current. Men, by 
nature, are in the current that is sweeping 
on down to perdition. It takes struggle 
and earnest effort to be saved. Positive 
measures must be employed. One must 
accept Jesus Christ in earnest faith. 
There must be penitence and prayer and 
faith. God's omnipotence must be laid 
hold of. Jesus' salvation must be accepted 
(39) 



40 The Foursquare Christian, 

The Holy Spirit must be welcomed. But 
in order to be lost it is only necessary 
that one shall do nothing more than to 
remain an unsaved sinner, and drift on 
down to the death and destruction of 
eternal perdition. 

It is as with one stricken with a terrible 
fever. To let the fever burn on means 
certain death. All that is necessary, in 
order to death, is that the patient and his 
friends leave the fever go on unchecked. 
The skillful physician knows the remedy. 
He comes and prescribes it, and leaving 
minute directions, goes his way. Shall 
the remedy be administered as he bids? 
There is the secret of life or death. To 
do nothing means death. To save life 
there must be watchful care and attention 
and obedience. Life may be saved if all 
is done. If there is neglect, death is sure. 
But so certain is it that the remedy will 
save the life if properly administered that, 
if the remedy be neglected and death comes, 
it may be said, in all truthfulness, that 
neglect, and not the disease, has been the 
real cause of death. So it is with sin. It 
is sure to end in eternal death. But the 
sinner need not die if he will accept Christ 
the Savior. To remain in unbelief and go 
on in sin is sure destruction. The sinner 



What Must I do to be Lost? 41 

need not become flagrant and outbreak- 
ing and blasphemous in bis unbelief. He 
need not mock and sneer at Christ, and re- 
vile his dying grace. All that is necessary 
is to go on without an acceptance of his 
salvation and he is lost. But so sure is 
Christ to save even the worst of sinners, 
if only he will believe on him, that, if he 
does not, but goes on to death, it may be 
said, in all truthfulness, that unbelief, and 
not the sin, is the real cause of his eternal 
death. Thus unbelief is the worst and 
most dangerous form of sin, and one needs 
do nothing but this in order to be eternally 
lost. 

It is as when a house or city is afire. 
It will go on burning until entirely con- 
sumed, unless the flames be arrested. It 
is not necessary to saturate the building 
with oil, and carry the blaze to other 
buildings, The flames will spread. The 
city will go up in a wide-spreading con- 
flagration. It will take positive work to 
check the fire, but it is only necessary that 
the negative attitude of doing nothing snail 
be taken in order that the city be laid in 
ruins. So burn the flames of sin in the 
human heart. In order to be saved there 
must be an earnest fleeing for grace to 
(4) 



42 The Foursquare Christian. 

Christ; but in case one does nothing, sin 
will burn on and on until the all-consum- 
ing desolation and despair of the soul shall 
be the flames of an unquenched eternal 
torment. 

While those unsaved should lay all this 
to heart, so should their friends. We must 
not be inactive while those we love are 
still unsaved. We rather should follow 
the example of the four friends who bore 
the paralytic into the presence of the heal- 
ing Savior, of whom we read that seeing 
"their faith" he gave heed to the man and 
healed him. The Lord regards the faith 
of those who in the arms of prayer and 
love present their loved ones to him, ask- 
ing for his grace. If even two or three 
agree on earth, the Lord has gracious 
promises for them. It is not necessary 
that there should be four. But the two 
or three, even when the two may be the 
parents, should make earnest prayer and 
use earnest efforts that the one who is 
loved, and still unsaved, may come to a 
saved life. Until those who are loved are 
saved they remain lost. It is not necessary 
that they should wander into outrageous 
sin. Let prayers arise from the earliest 
infancy for the salvation of each child. 



What Must I do to be Lost? 43 

Let earnest efforts be put forth to lead 
each friend and loved one to an interest 
in Christ. Let there be conscious certainty 
that for friends to do nothing leaves a soul 
most unbefriended and in danger of re- 
maining eternally lost. 



REPENTANCE UNTO LIFE. 

True repentance is sorrow over one's own 
sinfulness, and such sorrow as leads him 
to give it up and turn from it to God, and 
to a life of new and true obedience. If it 
does not result in this it is all mere sham 
or self-deception. It must be a godly sor- 
row that works life. It must be more than 
a mere self-pity and sorrow that one has 
been caught and made to suffer. 

Repentance is a turning of the back upon 
sin and the traveling away from it fast 
and forever, as faith may be said to be 
involved in it as a turning of the face to- 
ward Christ and hastening toward him 
for all the future life. Faith in Jesus 
Christ as the personal Savior is bound to 
include hatred of, sorrow for, and a turn- 
ing away from sin. There is no vital re- 
ligion which does not include renunciation 
of sin, in simple and sincere dependence 
upon Jesus Christ as the Savior. 

The worst people in the world are sorry 

for sin sometimes, at least to the extent 

of being sorry for the consequences of it. 

"When one has committed a crime, and is 

(44) 



Repentance unto Life. 45 

being punished for it he is sorry that the 
punishment has been measured out to 
him, and, sometimes, under these circum- 
stances men will weep and mourn and 
lament in such fashion as to lead others 
to believe that they are really penitent. 

But we must not be misled by such man- 
ifestations into giving the comfort which 
rightfully belongs only to godly sorrow. 
People do not relish punishment. Cain 
gave no evidence of any real sorrow for 
his sin, but he cringed and whimpered as 
his successors have usually done, saying: 
"My punishment is greater than I can 
bear." But in it all there is not a word 
of acknowledgment of his own wrong-do- 
ing. 

The true penitent acknowledges that it 
is right for him to suffer. He knows that 
be has done wrong, he remembers the 
wrong he has done to others and to God, 
and he realizes that it is right for him to 
be punished. If there is an offer to him of 
pardon and release he does not simply con- 
gratulate himself over his escape, but he 
appreciates the grace that relieves him, 
and he pledges himself, heartily and sin- 
cerely, to a new life of real goodness and 
gratitude. If he is sincerely penitent he 
can be trusted to live a new and different 



46 The Foursquare Christian. 

life. If he is not penitent, in truth he will 
soon be found again in wrong-doing. 

What is known as death-bed repentance 
is very hazardous. It is not to be trusted. 
Tt is sometimes all that is left for a death- 
bed, but it is a most dangerous thing to 
depend on. There is in the Bible one case 
ol repentance at the last hour of life, in 
the case of the penitent thief, and the ac- 
count of this is given so that those may 
hope who seek to turn to God at that late 
hour, but there is only one case given as 
if to warn us from the deceptive and dan- 
gerous thought that we may delay re- 
pentance with impunity. Let no one who 
is in youth and health think to defer the 
duty of repentance. Each moment of de- 
lay is full of peril to his own soul, as it is 
full of disregard for and disobedience of 
the plain instructions and invitations of 
God. Many who have made expressions 
of penitance and faith, on what was sup- 
posed to be the death-bed, have recovered, 
and have shown, by their lives, that no 
saving change had been wrought in their 
souls. Had they died instead of living 
their unregenerate condition would have 
resulted in a lost eternity. 

Repentance is not a solitary act to which 



Repentance unto Life. 47 

the Christian may look back as marking 
his entrance upon the new life. Rather Is 
it to be the life-long attitude toward sin 
which the Christian maintains at all times. 
He is one who hates sin, and has turned 
his back upon it. He is dead to it. He 
takes no interest in it. He finds no place 
in his plans for that which grieves Christ 
and harms his own soul. He puts it be- 
neath his feet. He makes no provision 
for it to obey it Sin has no mere do- 
minion over him. He is out of its king- 
dom. He belongs to the kingdom of God. 
His face is turned toward Christ, and it 
stays turned toward him, that he may see 
him, adore him, and be guided by him in 
all the days and all the ways of future life. 



GROWING IN GRACE. 

It would be a very sad and disappointing 
thing if a babe were to make no growth, 
but were to remain, year after year, weak, 
small, helpless, incapable of intelligent ac- 
tivity and effort. What is charming in a 
babe ceases to be charming when the time 
comes for the babe to have larger and 
stronger life. Its helplessness and tender- 
ness appeal to our hearts; but if these con- 
tinue on through many years, we sorrow 
over it as an imbecile. We expect devel- 
opment, growth, and the putting forth of 
strength and vigor as expressions of vital- 
ity and in the ways of self-supporting and 
useful labor. 

So it is expected that the Christian shall 
grow. He is born as a babe into the house- 
hold of faith. His earliest attitudes are 
those of simple and childlike trustfulness, 
and of obedient receptivity as a simple 
learner of the truths of Christ. But he is 
to be more, as the years go by. He is not 
always to be a babe, nourished and shel- 
tered by others, and led in the ways of 
peace and rest and ease. He is to learn 
(48) 



Growing in Grace. 49 

to think and act, to lead and help others, 
to be a positive and vigorous element in ad- 
vancing the work of the kingdom of God. 

Growth is the law in every vital depart- 
ment of the material world around us, and 
we are to expect it in intellectual and spir- 
itual life as certainly as in the physical 
realm. If we do not grow, we fail and 
perish. We can not remain stationary for 
indefinite periods. We ought, as Chris- 
tians, to know more and think more and 
pray more and work more and be more 
useful in the years of advancing life. 

In order to growth and strength, 
there must be real vitality. We have this 
if the Holy Spirit has imparted the life of 
God to our souls, so that we are new creat- 
ures. If we are God's spiritually born 
children, we have the divine life within us. 
This is to be nourished, and God has given 
us the means for this. We are to be as 
careful as though a little babe were placed 
in our arms, to nourish and train for grow- 
ing and useful life. 

In the first place, we must have the 
proper nourishment. God's Word is to be 
read by us, not as history or literature or 
instruction in morals merely, but as food 
for our souls, which we are to receive 
daily, and meditate and pray over, and be- 



50 The Foursquare Christian. 

lieve and love and practice. In order to 
its proper understanding and gracious ben- 
efits we are to associate with Christian 
people, are to be regular worshipers in 
God's house, and to use reverently all the 
means of grace, and are to read the words 
of godly men and women as found in re- 
ligious books and papers. Irreligious and 
infidel books and papers and lectures and 
associations are to be shunned, as inter- 
fering with the sacred influences that God 
would impart to our souls, and as unworthy 
the attention of those who love and honor 
God. 

In the second place, if we would grow in 
Christian life and character, we must be 
much in prayer. We must not only pray 
over God's Word for light and direction, 
but we must seek personal communication 
with God, so that he may impart himself 
to us. God does come into the very life of 
those who seek his indwelling, and without 
this we miss the best element and joy of 
spiritual life. Many persons have the habit 
of praying for protection as they lie down 
to sleep at night, but one may do this and 
still not know the secret and power of a 
life of prayer. We must pray for more 
than protection and prosperity for our- 
selves and our loved ones. We must learn 



Growing in Grace. 51 

to talk with God as our dearest and most 
familiar friend, if we would know the grace 
and help that come to those who live a life 
of prayer. 

But again, we must know what it is to be 
active if we would grow strong. He who 
simply eats and drinks and rests can not 
have healthful growth. He must take prop- 
er and regular exercise. The Christian 
must work and be useful and helpful. The 
Christian people who are working and giv- 
ing in the church are not only the useful 
ones, but they are the happy and growing 
children of God. Christian activity helps 
the faith, and makes one more healthful 
and hopeful and happy in every way. One 
great secret of a successful church is for 
every member to be at work, and one great 
secret of a successful Christian life is to be 
so devoted to the cause of Christ that we 
will be diligent in his service. To work for 
Christ keeps us committed to him, keeps 
us close to him, and keeps us interested in 
those things that are dear to his heart. 

By following these simple and yet most 
important rules of Christian life, we shall 
be sure to make advances and thus grow 
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord 
and Savior Jesus Christ. 



"ALWAYS ABOUNDING." 

Paul was fond of using large words 
when speaking of the privileges and duties 
of Christian life. It was not that the words 
were long and hard to pronounce or under- 
stand. It was quite the opposite. The 
words themselves were apt to be short and 
easily understood, but they stood for great 
and wide and long things. They were 
great words not in the sense of filling the 
mouth, but with the power to fill the mind 
and the heart. 

Such a word is "abounding." It has the 
largeness of the ocean about it. It has the 
free range of the mountain in its atmos- 
phere. It carries one out to the wide plains 
where there is no restriction to the lib- 
erty. The words means "without bounds." 
Ii is the great sea rather than the pint-cup. 
It is the wide universe rather than the 
imprisoning room. It is the King's treas- 
ure rather than the beggar's dole. It is 
the grace of God poured out without meas- 
ure into the heart of the Christian, and it 
is the grace of the Christian manifesting 
itself in loving and continuous service for 
(52) 



Always Abounding. 53 

the sake of Christ, It seeks ever for en- 
largement. It tries not to save self, but 
ever to be more and do more. It breaks 
down the bounds of contradiction and con- 
finement, and diffuses itself like the sun- 
light that floods all the spaces. 

Here is the ideal for Christian life. It 
is not to be selfish and contracted, but 
large, active, diligent, abounding in all 
that is good and lovely and gracious. Thus 
is it to be with our prayers, going up to 
the throne of Grace for great and wide 
b«essings. Thus it is to be with our affec- 
tions, taking in the whole wide world and 
bearing it before God in our desires for 
its salvation. Thus it is to be with our 
labors for the advancement of the interests 
of the kingdom of Christ, as we use our 
powers with unselfish stint, seeking to ac- 
complish great and lasting results over 
which we shall rejoice in the eternal world. 
Thus is it to be with our giving, and 
though in our poverty we may not be able 
to give what we would like to bestow, yet 
God will make even that which is not to 
be as though it were, and will make his 
blessing enlarge the results of that which 
we gave in faith and love. 

Such another large word is "always." It 
is a great thing to do what is good and not 



54 The Foursquare Christian. 

grow weary in the doing; to be faithful and 
steadfast and changeless in gracious atti- 
tude and effort. So many persons are 
prone to give up after a little work for a 
good cause. So many start out and run 
well for a season, and then relax their 
running. So many can be counted on to 
be very zealous while the new enthusiasm 
is on, and then grow very cold when the 
first flush of interest dies out. It is not 
hard to arouse a burst of zeal, but it is 
something difficult to keep on and on after 
the romance has faded from the heart. 
Deep-seated principle is needed in the soul 
to keep one going after the going has come 
to be a plodding and a grind. But some 
have this principle, and they keep on. 
Keep on when they are weary? Yes. Keep 
on when they are feeling worn? Yes. 
Keep on when others drop out, and the 
company thins, and the enthusiasm fades? 
Yes. Always! By night and by day, in 
summer and in winter, in heat and in cold, 
in storm and in calm, in youth and in old 
age, it is always good to be zealously af- 
fected in a good matter and to keep on 
faithfully, steadfastly and unwaveringly, to 
the very end. 

Any one might enlist as a soldier if he 
might drop out at the first cold wind, or 



Always Abounding. 55 

the first rough road, or the first dark night, 
or the first sight of the enemy; but the 
soldier is to endure hardness, and the good 
soldier stands to his lot. The marriage 
vow is until death shall part. The Chris- 
tian vow is for faithfulness unto death, 
with no discharge in the war. The stal- 
wartness of a good and true life is seen 
in a steadfastness that persists, and that 
abounds, not for a little time of pleasant 
hours and sunny experiences, but always, 
ever and forever, in unswerving faith and 
loyalty, on to the very end. 

We depend on God. We know there are 
no bounds to his grace if we put ourselves 
where we may be the recipients of it ac- 
cording to his covenant. We know that his 
promise will never be broken, and that his 
words will be true as long as the heavens 
endure. Let his gracious and glorious 
character be not only our refuge, but the 
model on which we fashion our lives, and 
let us strive to be godly, in the sense of 
being like God, in unwavering faithfulness 
and in abounding unselfishness in the serv- 
ice of God and man. 



THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN. 

Childhood is the best age for conversion. 
No time in all the earthly experience is so 
opportune for this gracious beginning of 
the new life as the period that occurs so 
early that it can not be remembered. Those 
who are led to love and accept Christ in 
these early days gain the crowning ex- 
perience of earth at the time when it will 
do them the most good and make them the 
greatest blessing to others. 

A child learns to love its mother so 
early that it is never able to remember 
the time when it did not love her. It 
seems to one that he always loved his 
mother. Yet, as a fact, this is impossible. 
The love commenced, and at some definite 
time, too. Feeble it was in its beginning, 
and yet there was a beginning. The brood- 
ing love, the tender caress, the gentle 
smile, the patient care, the sweet winsome- 
ness of the mother awakened an answer 
one day, and it found expression in a tiny 
pressure of the hand and a little smile on 
the baby face. Love was born because the 
mother came to be known to the baby in 
her mother love. 
(56) 



The Conversion of Children. 57 

When Christ is presented to the little 
child as the loving, tender, holy, ever-pres- 
ent yet unseen friend and Savior, the heart 
goes out to him in love under the winning 
grace of the Holy Spirit. The heart of the 
child is sweetly susceptible to the spiritual 
influences that come from God, and when 
the sweet old story of Jesus and his love 
is told simply and tenderly and truly by 
those who are trusted and loved by the 
child, there is born within him the sincere 
and unquestioning love that answers to 
that of Christ, and marks the beginning of 
the Christian life. It is an experience 
which is real, which we should welcome, 
and over which we should rejoice. Yet 
how many doubt its reality, and, instead 
of suffering the little children to come to 
Christ, forbid them so far as lies within 
the sphere of our chilling fears to do so. 

The theory of a great many persons is 
that religion is beyond the reach of chil- 
dren to understand or grasp. They realize, 
at the same time, that a large proportion 
of those who grow into adult life without 
accepting Christ go on unmoved and un- 
saved. The hearts of the little children 
should be savingly affected, and every year 
which one lives beyond sixteen without an 
(5) 



58 The Foursquare Christian. 

outspoken and public acceptance of him is 
a year of heart-breaking peril to the soul. 
No greater mistake could be made by any 
one than that of encouraging or directing 
children to pass the most opportune time 
of life without conversion, and go on to 
the years in which so many know only a 
growing hardness of heart. 

The most thoroughly sensible and philo- 
sophical course to take in any matter is 
that of working along the line of the least 
resistance. It would be utter folly to put 
off the education of the child until adult 
life, on the plea that philosophy and the 
higher mathematics can not be understood 
in early childhood. If education is de- 
ferred until maturity, there will be little 
taste or power or opportunity found for 
acquiring it. Childhood is the time for the 
opening of the heart as well as of the 
intellect, and we are strangely insensible 
if we do not use every known means to 
win them to the knowledge and the love 
of Christ. 

Those are the wisest and most effective 
evangelists who direct their most earnest 
and continued efforts to the winning of 
the children. The child of ten who becomes 
a Christian may have sixty years before 
it for Christian service. The man of sixty 



The Conversion of Children. 59 

who becomes a Christian may have ten 
vears left out of a wasted life. Let the 
evangelists seek the salvation of the men 
who are ready to perish, but especially let 
them seek the conversion of the little chil- 
dren, who may serve God for many years 
and help win the world for Christ. And 
so that pastor is wise who seeks to lead 
the lambs of the flock to the Savior, and 
men train them to love and live near to 
aim who died to save them. And that 
mother is wise who, not leaving the matter 
of her child's salvation to some possible 
outside influence in the years to come, 
sets herself to teach it of Jesus and his 
love, point it to heaven and allure the way. 
Such efforts are worthy of the best and 
truest motherhood, and are the surest of 
all not to go unrewarded. 

We might give the names of many who 
in later life became great in the work of 
God's kingdom on earth, who became 
Christians in very early life. Many of 
the most eminent men and women who 
have ever lived tell us that they gave their 
hearts to the Savior at twelve or eight or 
six, or so early in life that they had no 
remembrance of a time when they did not 
love him. There can be no doubt as to 
the reality and effectiveness of such experi- 



60 The Foursquare Christian. 

ences. Let us give up all unworthy and 
reluctant doubtings as to this. Let us fall 
in line with God's providence and grace, 
and use consecrated efforts to lead the 
little ones to the Savior, that they may 
be satisfied early with his mercy, and that, 
all through life, they may walk in ways 
of pleasantness and paths of peace. 



THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. 

The highest ambition that can enter a 
human soul is the ambition to become like 
Christ. Of course, no mere human being 
can become entirely like Christ, for Christ 
was superhuman, but he may strive to 
imitate his virtues and his life. The higher 
the model the loftier will be the striving. 
The loftiest and noblest efforts to be pure 
and good will be made by those who, ac- 
cepting Jesus Christ as their Savior and 
example, make it the purpose of their lives 
to be like him so far as they can become 
by the grace of God. 

Hawthorne, in his story, "The Great 
Stone Face," illustrates how a great ideal 
purifies, molds and elevates a life. The 
boy of whom the story was told had been 
accustomed to see on the side of the moun- 
tain the clear-cut face, with dignity and 
benignity on the features, and was told 
that some day there would come to the 
valley a man resembling this stone face, 
and that he would prove to be the greatest 
friend and benefactor to the people. The 
boy studied the face of each stranger who 
(61) 



62 The Foursquare Christian. 

came to the valley to see if he might not 
be the coming benefactor. Time and again 
he was disappointed. The rich man did 
not resemble the stone face. The great 
scholar did not have the features he knew 
so well. One after another, for successive 
years, came short of the resemblance, but 
still he held on to the faith that the great 
friend and benefactor, looking like this 
stone face, would come to bless them. 

As the thought brooded in the boy's mind 
he was led to idealize the character of the 
man who should come. He conceived that 
he must be lofty in his thougnts, serene 
in his faith, pure in his character, gentle 
and kind and tender to the people, and 
as he thought of all these desirable quali- 
ties, he began to take them on himself. 
He grew more and more gentle to all, 
thoughtful and considerate and helpful, 
manly and full of sweet-heartedness which 
took the form of unmistakable dignity and 
kindness. The years went by, and as his 
hair whitened and his face took on more 
and more of the internal thought and char- 
acter of the man, the people of the valley 
came to realize that he who was the friend 
and counselor of them all was the very 
image of the stone face, and the benefactor 
and friend who had already come to them. 



The Imitation of Christ. 63 

The one who takes Christ as his ideal, 
and who tries to be like him, will very 
largely realize what it is to live a Christly 
life. Others will see in him a purity and 
beauty and goodness and kindness that will 
remind them of the Master. He will not 
be able to perform miracles of healing the 
sick, but he can visit the sick and comfort 
them in their suffering. He will not b€ 
able to make the blind to see and the deaf 
to hear and the dumb to speak, but he can 
do something to alleviate their lot and 
to make their lives brighter by his friendly 
words and deeds. He can go about his 
business in a loving spirit, dealing justly 
with all, and showing mercy and speaking 
truth. He can live with a heart full of 
iove and faith and prayer, and can help 
draw those around him within the influ- 
ences of God's grace and life. As he lives 
and after he is gone men will in some way 
be reminded of Christ. 

The Apostle Paul urged those whom he 
addressed to follow him as he followed 
Christ. With his intimate knowledge of 
the spirit and teachings of the Lord, as he 
was inspired by the Holy Spirit, he sought 
to reproduce Christ in his own life, so that 
others might, in seeing him, see Christ, 
and be led to become like him in their own 



64 The Foursquare Christian. 

turn. It has been said that "the Christian 
is the worldling's Bible, and that he reads 
no other." Certain it is that the Christian 
is closely watched, and if his life is blame- 
less and harmless, and reminds those 
about him of Christ, he becomes a great 
power to help them to see the beauty of a 
holy life and to accept it as their own. 

We have often noticed a growing like- 
ness even in the physical features and 
facial expression between two persons who, 
being happily mated, have lived long to- 
gether in the marriage relation. Especial- 
ly is it true that two persons, so related, be- 
come greatly alike in their moral and spir- 
itual qualities. If they both love the Lord 
Jesus Christ they come to be greatly like 
one another as they both come to be greatly 
like him. The change of character along 
the lines of truth and goodness and purity 
and spiritual beauty, as Christ is taken as 
model and leader and friend, is the most 
impressive and important thing occurring 
in human life, and many are praying and 
striving that they may come to be like him 
who is the Chief among ten thousands and 
altogether lovely. 

We are not driven to imagine the excel- 
lencies of Christ. They are delineated in 



T7ve Imitation of Christ. 65 

the Gospels, and so beautifully is his char- 
acter presented that thoughtful men, every- 
where, have agreed that he was the best 
and purest being who ever lived. To be 
like him we do not have to suppose or 
imagine or dream of what he was. We are 
to study the record of his life; pray in the 
Holy Ghost; give ourselves to him in true 
devotion; seek in obedience and spiritual- 
ity and faith to reproduce his likeness. 
However we may come short, we shall 
find it better to strive to be like him. 
Some time we shall be satisfied when we 
awake in his likeness. 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP, 



"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy * * * soul! 3 — Mark 
xii 50. 



* * * 



cc Thou shalt worship the Lord thy 
God/' — Matt iv. 10. 

* * * 

"With the mouth confession is made 

unto salvation/' — Romans x. 10. 

* * * 

"He that believe th and is baptized 

shall be saved/' — Mark xvL 16. 

* * * 

"This do in remembrance of Me/' — 
Luke xxii. ip. 



CONFESSING CHRIST. 

The Christian life is not to be lived in 
secret. The Christian's hope is not to be 
concealed in the recesses of his own heart. 
It is as essential to the life of the child of 
God that he be outspoken in his love and 
faith as it is to the flower that it unfold 
in the beauty and fragrance of bloom. A 
secret, silent, unconfessed Christian life 
is as hard to conceive as a flower that never 
reveals its existence in fragrance or color. 
What would such a life amount to* and 
why should God call such a loveless and 
unlovely existence into being? 

He who would have an interest in Christ 
and would have the respect and recogni- 
tion of Christ must be openly, and with- 
out question, a confessing follower of 
Christ. There is no mistaking the mean- 
ing of the words spoken by our Lord in 
regard to confessing him or being ashamed 
of him. He himself will be ashamed of us 
or will confess us, at the great day and 
in the great Presence, according to the 
attitude we take toward him here and now. 

Christ did not try to make it easy for 
(67) 



68 The Foursquare Christian. 

people to be his followers, in the sense 
of allowing them to keep quiet about it, 
or to compromise the matter, or to remain 
his disciples in secret. He knew the human 
heart too well to permit anything like this. 
He knew that in so important a matter it 
was necessary for them to be fully and 
openly committed to his service. 

If it was a necessity then tor human na- 
ture to be outspoken if it would be true 
and if it would receive the real benefit, 
it is none the less necessary now. If we 
would be the followers of Christ, we must 
follow him in the sight of the world, and 
be identified with him, or we may forget 
our allegiance and live, or attempt to live, 
a double life. A double life deceives no 
one but the one who tries to live it. It 
certainly does not deceive God even for a 
little time. He who is not positively for 
Christ is against him. 

An illustration is furnished in the case of 
marriage. Any woman would better be 
careful of the man who proposes marriage 
to her, but desires to keep the fact of the 
marriage a secret. The great danger, as 
many a deceived woman has found too late, 
to her cost, is that the marriage was only 
a sham. He who is a true and good man 
is ready, when he marries a woman, to do 



Confessing Christ. 69 

so in an open and public manner, in the 
presence of mutual friends, and according 
to the laws of the land. Marriage should 
always be thus public, that both parties 
may be fully committed to each other for 
life. 

Why should any one think that Christ 
is more easily satisfied than a human being, 
or that religion with its offered benefits, 
is a matter to keep secret, if it really 
exists? Every one who is desirous of 
Christ's salvation should accept it as it is 
offered, and in the most outspoken way, 
before all the world, should acknowledge 
Jesus Christ as his Savior, and should 
pledge him his love and service. 

The true Christian wil! consider it a 
high and distinguishing honor to be per- 
mitted to be identified with Christ here 
on earth as one of his professed followers. 
It is but a little thing for him not to be 
ashamed of Christ, for there is nothing to 
be ashamed of in the glorious and beau- 
tiful character of the Savior. It is a great 
thing, however, for Christ not to be 
ashamed of the imperfect and fallible men 
and women who call him their Lord. But 
because they trust in him and love him and 
try to do his will, by his divine grace 
assisting them, he has left it on record 



70 The Foursquare Christian. 

that he is not ashamed to be identified with 
them here, and is ready and willing for 
them to take his name and be known as 
his followers. And there is a day coming, 
the great day for which all other days 
were made, in which it will be the joy and 
glory of our lives if Christ is not ashamed 
of us. If we love and trust him now, he 
will certainly own us then ; and if we are 
lovingly identified with him here, he will 
be our deliverer there, "the strength of our 
heart and our refuge forever." Here and 
now, henceforth and forever, we may well 
choose to be one with Christ in the frank- 
ness of outspoken life and unfaltering fel- 
lowship. 



CHURCH ATTENDANCE. 

There is a philosophical reason for th6 
existence of institutions that have had 
long continuance. There is a call for 
them or they would not endure. They sup- 
ply a real need or they would not continue 
to hold their place among men. 

Church attendance is one of these. It 
is provided for in God's Word. Directions 
are given and exhortations are repeated 
urging men not to neglect or forget their 
duty in this direction. As an institution 
it comes down to us in an unbroken line 
The people who assembled around Ezra's 
pulpit of wood came, as the congregations 
of to-day to hear God's Word read and 
explained, and thus they joined in public 
worship. 

There is a call for these public services. 
Closet prayer and family worship do not 
supply all the needs of those who pray. 
There is a social side to our moral and 
spiritual natures that demands public wor- 
ship. And preaching is demanded. We 
listen not alone in order to receive instruc- 
tion, or for the charm that lies in the 
(71> 



72 The Foursquare Christian. 

human, voice, or from some lurking will- 
ingness to be temporarily dominated by the 
will of some one whom we respect. There 
is the fact of social alliances with others 
in the community, and the sense that, in 
order to the best results, all must be in- 
structed, dominated and marshaled alike. 
The Gospel purifies a community and or- 
ganizes its members for high and holy 
purposes. Irreligion segregates, dissipates 
and disperses. Of all places in the world, 
there is none so cheerless as a godless com- 
munity. 

Many an irreligious man excuses himself 
from church attendance by claiming that 
he finds the woods and hills better and 
more congenial places for worship. But 
does he worship there, or is it a fiction all? 
Is it not the specious plea of men who 
quiet their conscience and answer sober 
argument by an excuse coined out of pure 
hypocrisy? The fact is that most men 
who neglect church attendance spend the 
Sabbath in merely secular life. Some in 
work and some in worldly recreations take 
the time which should be given to God and 
their souls, and absent themselves from 
the services of the sanctuary for selfish 
and irreligious reasons. 

The minister of a certain church com- 



Church Attendance. 73 

menced his work with his congregation by 
a very poetical and liberal extolling of 
nature as a means of spiritual uplift, and 
contrasted the green fields and sloping hill- 
sides and running streams and blue skies 
with the pent-up meeting-house, greatly to 
the disadvantage of the latter. The years 
went by, and little as he learned of some 
things, he learned that he had made a 
great mistake in trying to build up a 
church by urging people to neglect its 
services. And so, upon receiving another 
call, he urged the people whom he left 
behind to stand by their church and to 
attend its services, and to encourage the 
pastor by being present whenever he was 
in the pulpit. He told them that a flitting, 
wandering, unstable life was unsatisfac- 
tory, and that personally and as families 
they should build up their lives upon the 
lines of the Sabbath and the sanctuary. At 
the close of the service a gentleman came 
to him and said sadly that he wished he 
had preached that sermon at the beginning 
rather than at the close of his work with 
them, telling him that he had followed the 
counsel of his first sermon, and that it 
had most deplorable results for his sons* 
who had all become godless men. 
(6) 



74 The Foursquare Christian. 

The fact is, that if children are trained 
up to attend church and to regard God's 
commandments, they will become God-fear- 
ing people as the years go by. This is the 
rule made by God. who has decreed that 
grapes shall not grow thorns nor figs pro- 
duce thistles. If any man thinks that he 
can find God not carrying out this law, 
let him sustain his specifications if he 
thinks that he can. Mr. Spurgeon said 
that at one time he boarded with seven 
ether young men. Two of them went reg- 
ularly to church and observed the Sabbath 
The others stayed away from church an 4 
spent the Sabbath in worldly recreation 
and wandering about in quest of amuse- 
ment. The two grew into strong, stalwart 
Christian men; the other six became dis- 
sipated and useless worldlings. 

The church and its services become a 
very touchstone of character. As we stand 
in reference to them we disclose our char- 
acter. If we honor God, he will honor us. 
If we serve him in obedience and humble 
patience, he will crown and beautify our 
lives. 



UNITING WITH THE CHURCH. 

Uniting with the church is one of the 
most pronounced ways of confessing Christ. 
It is so distinctly understood to be the 
privilege and duty of all Christ's followers 
to be members of the church that those 
who neglect it have little right to expect 
others to regard them as Christians. Those 
who stand aloof from the church, whatever 
else they may say or do, show but little 
regard for Christ. 

The church is a divine institution. It 
was devised and instituted by God him- 
self as the home and household of his 
people here on earth. To them, thus or- 
ganized, he has committed the sacred duty 
of extending his kingdom on earth. In 
the church are to be enrolled all who love 
him. To the church has been committed 
the holy mission of making known his 
will, of preaching and teaching his Gospel, 
of sustaining his ordinances, of adminis- 
tering his sacraments, and of doing all 
that work by means of which he reaches 
savingly the hearts of the people to re- 
generate and sanctify them, and to bring 
(75) 



76 The Foursquare Christian. 

them at last into the glory and happiness 
of his everlasting kingdom. The church 
thus has a high and holy mission, and no 
cne who loves God ought to hold aloof 
from its life and work. 

Of course, it is possible to fall into the 
mistake of depending upon church mem- 
bership as a ground for acceptance with 
God, as the Pharisees did In the days of 
Christ, and as we fear multitudes have 
done since their time. But the formalism 
of some is no excuse for our disregarding 
and disobeying the expressed will of God, 
that we should be members of his church, 
and that we should there serve him with 
sincere and steadfast faithfulness. We 
must not avoid one evil by falling into 
another. We must avoid them both, and 
simply seek to do God's will. The Chris- 
tian who loves God with all his heart and 
soul will be found here on earth in the 
church which Christ loved, and which he 
has purchased with his own blood. 

There are many good and great reasons 
for uniting with the church. It is the 
general judgment of God's people that it 
is a divinely designated duty, and we 
should not set ourselves in opposition to 
this. There is important work to be done 
in saving our world, and in order to do 



Uniting with the Church. 77 

this Christian people should be thoroughly 
organized, as God directs, under his ban- 
ner. The work of the church is needed 
for the encouragement of the good and for 
opposition to evil, for the promotion of 
missions at home and abroad, for the fos- 
tering of what is sacred, for the advance- 
ment of what is highest and best, and for 
the comfort and encouragement of all who 
are trying to do God's will. United effort 
is needed. Let us not hold aloof. The 
service of Christ should enlist all our 
hearts and lives. 

Christ has instituted his sacraments, and 
has told us to observe them. Only those 
who are the professed followers of Christ 
have a right to come to the sacrament of 
the Lord's Supper. In order to have this 
privilege we must be members of the 
church. It is a great and terrible mistake 
for any one to go through this life without 
obeying Christ in his sacramental require- 
ments, and without being a member of the 
church into the fold of which he invites 
all who are his real followers. 

There are some excuses put forward for 
not uniting with the church, but these all 
arise from timidity, pride, self-sufficiency, 
prejudice, censoriousness, obstinacy, self- 



78 The Foursquare Christian. 

ishness, or other worldly and unworthy 
motives. Some may be deceived into think- 
ing them sufficient reasons for disregard- 
ing the will of Christ, but they are all 
as chaff before the winnowing fan and fire 
of the Holy Spirit. Let his divine grace 
be welcomed into the heart, and these ex- 
cuses disappear forever, and the soul that 
loves is ready to obey. 

We need the church, with its holy ordi- 
nances, its helpful influences, its sacred 
attractions, and its beneficent restraints. 
It is needed by the individual, the family, 
the community and the world. Where it 
is not, the world is poor indeed. Let us 
identify ourselves with Christ and his 
church, and let us shr%w that we love him 
who loved us and gave himself for us. 



BAPTISM. 

Baptism with water is one of the two 
sacraments of the Christian Church. It 
is properly administered by sprinkling or 
pouring, and it symbolizes the work of the 
Holy Spirit descending and poured out 
upon his people for their cleansing. The 
whole analogy and teaching of the Scrip- 
tures lead us to believe this to be the 
proper form for the sacrament^ and we 
know of no sufficient argument for its ad- 
ministration in any other manner. 

Baptism and the Lord's Supper in the 
New Testament take the place of Circum- 
cision and the Passover of the Old Testa- 
ment.. As the Passover Feast waa for the 
commemoration of the deliverance of the 
Israelitish people, through the sprinkling of 
the blood of the Passover lamb on the 
door-posts of their dwellings, so the » Lord's 
Supper commemorates the deliverance of 
believers through the death of Christ, the 
Lamb of God, who was sacrificed for us on 
Calvary. As circumcision was the sign and 
seal of the covenant, and was adminis- 
tered to all the infant sons of the nation 
(79) 



80 The Foursquare Christian. 

to signify their being a living part of the 
Israel of God, so does baptism signify and 
seal faith in Jesus Christ, dependence upon 
the Holy Spirit for spiritual life and 
cleansing, and a covenant engagement to 
be the Lords. In either case, adminis- 
tered to the children, it expressed the 
faith of | their parents and involved the 
heartfelt pledge that the children should 
be brought up in the fear of the Lord. 
The Jewish people are still bound as a 
compact people in the practice of circum- 
cision, and nine-tenths of the whole Chris- 
tian Church, from generation to genera- 
tion, have taken this covenant view of the 
sacrament of baptism. 

As the Gospel was sent out on its mis- 
sion of world-wide conquest, it was pro- 
vided also that adults, upon their conver- 
sion, should be baptized upon confession 
of their own faith in Christ, their spir- 
itual acceptance of the cleansing of the 
Holy Spirit and their engagement to be the 
Lord's. Thus adult proselytes came into 
the Jewish nation and were circumcised, 
and were then careful that their children 
should have the right relationship with 
Israel by means of this ordinance. While 
adult baptism is for all who have come to 



Baptism. 81 



mature life before being in covenant re- 
lation with the Lord in his church, the 
proper administration of baptism is to in- 
fants, by sprinkling of water, on the faith 
of their parent? in Jesus Christ, and in 
dependance on the Holy Spirit for the 
spiritual life and cleansing of the children 
they devote to God and his service. 

Those who have been baptized in in- 
fancy should feel under great obligations 
to God for having graciously placed them 
in circumstances so spiritually favorable, 
and should be prompt to take upon them- 
selves the vows which were taken for them 
in infancy by their Christian parents. We 
believe this to be a most effectual means 
of grace, and feel assured that the great 
mass of those baptized in infancy, if they 
are properly trained, will be led to accept 
for themselves the saving grace and 
blessed service of Jesus Christ. 

Those who have come to mature life 
without baptism have the privilege of re- 
ceiving it upon profession of their faith 
and their reception into the church. No 
one should permit himself to pass through 
life without this sacrament. It was di- 
vinely instituted, and it is intended to sym- 
bolize, and thus to honor, the work of the 



82 The Foursquare Christian. 

Holy Spirit, the second person of the 
blessed Trinity, who cleanses and sancti- 
fies the hearts of his people, thus fitting 
them for the service and enjoyment of 
God, here and hereafter. We should very 
humbly and lovingly receive him into our 
hearts, do his will and let his will be done 
within us, and in all ways honor him upon 
whom we are dependent for spiritual life 
and progress. 

Baptism is of great importance, and 
should not be neglected by any one who 
has regard for the wishes and directions 
of Jesus Christ. It is a privilege and it is 
a duty. Yet it is not, of itself, saving. 
Only Jesus Christ, accepted in faith, can 
save us. What is enjoined by him, how- 
ever, we must not overlook or underesti- 
mate. He himself has taught us that "he 
that believeth and is baptized shall be 
saved; but he that believeth not shall be 
damned," whether he has been baptized 
or not. Let us accept all of his holy ordi- 
nances as means for the imparting of his 
divine grace, and through them let us be 
brought to know him more clearly and to 
love him better all through our earthly 
life. 



BURIED IN BAPTISM. 

A young man bad been converted. His 
religious experience had been genuine, 
thorough and satisfactory. He had per- 
sonal assurance of his acceptance with 
God through the grace of Jesus Christ, and 
he rejoiced in the blessed consciousness 
that God, for Christ's sake, had forgiven 
all his sins, and had given to him the end 
of his faith, even the salvation of his soul. 

He turned his back upon whatever in his 
past life had been sinful and unprofitable 
His repentance was deep and thorough-go- 
ing. He had passed from death into life. 
From the old habits and attitudes, of word, 
thought and deed, that were deadly and 
that worked death, he turned with the full 
purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedi- 
ence. To him repentance was not one 
simple act performed. It was an attitude 
taken, and to be maintained. He was to 
keep his back turned on sin. He was dead 
to it. He was not to live any longer there- 
in. Old things had passed away. He had 
entered a new life, of new aspirations and 
new relations. He was dead to the old life 
(83) 



84 The Foursquare Christian. 

of sin. His life henceforth was hid with 
Christ in God. He had come into the king- 
dom, and saw and heard and thought with 
newly awakened spiritual faculties. He 
loved to pray, to talk with God, to be with 
Christian people, to engage in worship, to 
serve and follow Christ. 

It was as though he had been dead and 
buried to his old life of sin. He was no 
longer identified with it. A new experience 
had cut him off from it. God's Holy Spirit 
had wrought a change in him as though he 
bad passed forever out of, and away from, 
the things that had once held him in 
thralldom. It was no dream. It was no 
imagination. Let those think so who will. 
To him it was a real experience — positive, 
vivid and satisfying. 

But there came the Sabbath day when he 
was to make the public profession of his 
faith, and be welcomed publicly as one of 
the followers of Jesus Christ in his Church 
on earth. Thoughtfully and prayerfully he 
had looked forward to this solemn and im- 
pressive occasion. He was to receive the 
sacrament of baptism, instituted by Jesus 
Christ as the sign and seal of the faith 
of his believing people. He was to testify 
of his changed relations. He was to tell 



Buried in Baptism. 85 

of his death to the old life, and he was to 
profess his solemn purpose to live for Je- 
sus Christ. It was to be a public act. It 
was to be in the presence of his fellow 
Christians. It was to be, as it were, a 
public burial of his old life of unbelief and 
sin, that it might be put out of sight and 
forgotten, and that he might be known and 
counted by all as a new man, risen from 
the dead, to walk in newness of life. 

The time came for the service. The pub- 
lic profession was made. The old life from 
which he had turned in repentance and to 
which he had led, was publicly disavowed 
and publicly repudiated. The water of 
baptism, ?n Scriptural form, was sprinkled 
on his brow. The outward sign and seal 
ordained of Christ was administered in the 
Triune Name, and he stood committed to 
the new life, even as one who leaves a cor- 
rupt body in the grave and passes in spirit- 
existence into the spiritual world. 

From this time and place he was num- 
bered among the risen children of God. He 
lived the new life. The stress of a new 
nature and of an avowed change of rela- 
tion was upon him. Old things had passed 
away. All things had become new. Why 
should he who was dead to sin live any 



86 The Foursquare Christian. 

longer therein? The power of the unseen 
world was in his soul. He lived as one 
under the power of an endless life. 

This is the meaning of being "buried 
with Christ in baptism." Regeneration, 
which is brought about by the influence of 
the Holy Spirit who cleanses the heart, 
makes one a new creature. The water of 
baptismal sprinkling, which typifies that 
cleansing from above, is a sacramental 
service which publicly severs one from the 
past, and officially marks his entry into the 
new life of the professed followers of 
Christ. 



CHILD CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. 

The child of believing parents, members 
of the visible church themselves, is by 
birthright a member of the church. There 
is nothing in this that need startle any 
one. It is not a statement that children 
do not need to be regenerated in order to 
come into the personally saved life. It is 
not a claim that church membership, of 
itself, is sufficient to salvation. It is not 
a statement that these children are com- 
municants, or entitled to come to the Lord's 
Table without any preliminary experience. 
It is simply the expression of the fact that 
they are members of the church. 

The child is a member of the family 
into which it is born. It does not have to 
be adopted in order to become a member 
of it. It is born so. This does not mean 
that it is an adult member, or a self-sup- 
porting member, or a contributing or con- 
trolling member of the family. It is an 
infant. It is to be cared for, nurtured, sup- 
ported, instructed and gradually inducted 
into the doing of life's duties. And it Is 
through this conception of the family and 
(87) 



88 The Foursquare Christian. 

the relation of the child to it that the fam- 
ily has been, and is, maintained. 

The child is a member of the nation into 
which it is born. It does not have to be 
naturalized, nor even to declare its inten- 
tion to become a citizen. It is born so. 
This does not mean that it is expected, in 
its infancy or childhood, to bear arms, pay 
taxes or vote. It does mean that it is a 
component part of the nation's life. It te 
helpless and irresponsible in its early life, 
but it is as surely a member of the nation 
as is any man in public life, and its ab- 
duction by any foreign power would be re- 
sented, if necessary, by the whole arma- 
ment of the nation. And it is through this 
conception of tEe nation, and the relation 
of the child to it, that patriotic citizenship 
has been developed and fostered. 

We hold that the whole trend of Bible 
teaching, as well as the analogies of prac- 
tical life, emphasizes the fact that the child 
born to parents who are the professed fol- 
lowers of Christ are, themselves, members 
of the church. Our Presbyterian Discipline 
states this very plainly and forcefully when 
it says: 

All children born within the pale of the 
visible church are members of the church, 
are to be baptized, are under the care of 



Child Church Membership. 89 

the church, and subject to its government 
and discipline; and when they have ar- 
rived at years of discretion, they are bound 
to perform all the duties of church mem- 
bers. 

There are some bodies of Christian peo- 
ple who object to this, saying that they 
believe only in "believers' membership." 
They might as well demand that there shall 
be only nothing but adult membership for 
the family or the nation. God has put the 
children in the state, the family and the 
church. If they are properly cared for and 
nurtured, they will, in adult life, be found 
filling their places well in the home, in the 
nation, and in the Church of Jesus Christ, 

There are some who are exceedingly 
afraid that this view may lead to a mere 
formalistic or sacramentarian view of 
church membership and its privileges. We 
will grant that they are conscientious, but 
we are free to insist that it does not work 
in that way. The children who are care- 
fully and tenderly nurtured by parents who 
regard them as members of the church 
from infancy, as well as members of the 
family, and who use all efforts to train 
them for Christ, will, in most cases, come 
to have reverent regard for the things of 
religion, a habitual use of the means of 
(7), 



90 The Foursquare vhristian. 

grace and a personal love for and faith in 
Christ. This is regeneration. He who 
loves and believes in Christ is regenerated. 
The proper instruction at the right time 
in their early childhood will lead them to 
make profession of their faith and of their 
readiness and desire to come to the Lord's 
Table. 

The dedication of the children to God in 
their infancy in baptism, by parents who 
regard this as the sign of a sacred cove- 
nant, is to be followed by their careful 
training in the nurture and admonition of 
the Lord. This we regard as being far 
more apt to result in good to the children 
than the theory and practice of leaving 
them entirely outside the pale of the vis- 
ible church In their infancy and childhood. 
We hold the view, however, that children 
are members of the church, not simply be- 
cause we think it beautiful, or touching, 
or logical, or even because it works well, 
but because we believe it to be, in addi- 
tion to all this, agreeable to and taught in 
the Word of God. 



THE LORD'S SUPPER. 

The Lord's Supper, winch is statedly ob- 
served in our churches, is a feast com- 
memorative of the death and sufferings of 
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, by 
whom it was instituted in the night where- 
in he was betrayed. It is thus connected 
historically, doctrinally and in personal ex- 
perience with the supremely important and 
central facts and truths of the Gospel. 
Its observance being enjoined by Christ 
himself, no one who has any regard for 
him will neglect this holy ordinance, and 
those who voluntarily refrain through life 
from its observance show that they have 
but little respect for him who died for his 
people and who said, "This do in remem- 
brance of me." 

We call it a feast, but it stands apart 
from all ordinary festal occasions as one 
of most striking simplicity and sacred dig- 
nity. The emblems are the bread, made 
of the crushed grains of the wheat to 
typify the broken body of the Savior, and 
the cup containing the pure fruit of the 
vine to set forth ine blood of Christ that 
*9D 



92 The Foursquare Christiun 

was shed for our salvation. A mere frag- 
ment of the bread is taken by each com- 
municant and a simple sip from the cup. 
It is no material feast. These elements 
are intended to assist the spiritual grasp 
of %he precious and supreme truth that 
Christ, the Lamb of God, gave his body 
to be broken and his lifeblood to be shed 
that we, accepting him in living faith, 
might be saved from the guilt and power 
of sin and be preserved into everlasting 
life. 

The Lord's Supper is a commemoration 
of the sacrificial death and sufferings of 
our Savior. He wished these to be remem- 
bered. They must not be forgotten. There 
is no Gospel where these are not preached 
or known. Knowing the tendency of men. 
even when most sincere, to forget or over- 
look matters of vital importance, and the 
danger there might be of leaving out of 
the preaching of his Gospel the central fact 
of his atoning death, Christ gave the sacra- 
ment to be an abiding, external object leg- 
son, setting forth, everywhere and for- 
ever* the truth that must uot be lost out 
of sight. So it has been that, even where 
men have not preached the Gospel as fully 
and forcefully as they ought, this holy 



The Lord's Supper. 93 

service has set forth the great central 
truths that cluster around the cross of the 
great Redeemer, who died that we might 
live. Each time the Lord's Supper is ad- 
ministered the truth is borne in upon us 
that we have life only through faith in 
Christ who died. 

Nothing could be more simple than this 
service. There is no claim among Scrip- 
tural believers that there is any priestly 
or mysterious work wrought by the one 
who administers the sacrament. We have 
only pity and abhorrence for the papal 
doctrines of the mass and the claim that 
at the word of the priest the miracle is 
wrought of the change of th© elements into 
the real body and blood of Christ, and that 
the holy sacrifice of Christ for sinners is 
re-enacted. This is a monstrous perver* 
sion of the simple truth of the Gospel that 
Christ died in a sacrifice never to be re- 
peated. We put our faith in him as the 
Savior who ever lives to save and blesg 
those who trust him. 

The Lord's Supper is a spiritual feast in 
that we are led by the use and enjoyment 
of it, as a most precious means of grace, 
into a helpful and comforting realization 
of Christ's personal presence with us, and 



94 The Foursquare Christian. 

as we pray to him and commune with him, 
and as he imparts himself to us, we are 
nourished and comforted and strengthened 
for the duties of Christian life. 

The Lord's Sapper is a time especially 
appropriate for the renewing of our cove- 
nant with Christ. We call it a sacrament, 
and this word carries us back to remember 
the oath, which the Roman soldier took, 
of loyalty to the government into whose 
special service he had entered. He took 
oath to be true and faithful in the defense 
of his country. Let us feel, as we engage 
in the service of the holy Supper, that 
we are not only communing with Christ, 
and witnessing for him, and commemorat- 
ing his death, but that we are renewing our 
covenant obligation to be true to him, his 
cause, his Church and his holy service. 



PRAYER. 

Prayer being a Christian duty and a 
natural impulse, implanted in the heart 
by Nature and by Grace, there must be 
some good and great reasons for it. God 
does not mock us. He who has created 
the eye for light, and the ear for sound, 
and the heart for love, provides lovely ob- 
jects for the heart, sweet harmonies for 
the ear, and beautiful colors for the eye. 
He who has taught us and urged us to 
pray provides answers for our prayers and 
results that follow our petitions. 

Even if God had never spoken a word 
to us on the subject, we might still argue 
that he will hear prayer. Earthly parents 
and friends do, and surely God is as good 
as these if he is good at all. Children ask 
and plead for what they want, and we 
must ask God for what we need. It is in 
our hearts to do so. We can not keep 
from praying unless we repress our natures 
and do violence to the life that God has 
put within us. Especially when quickened 
and renewed is there a spirit of prayer in 
our hearts. We are made akin to God, 
(95) 



96 The Foursquare Christian. 

and our hearts cry out to him in the sense 
of our need and of the new and blessed 
relationship. 

Those who pray aright expect something 
to result from their prayers. They expect 
answers. They have a right to expect re- 
sults. If not, there is something wrong 
somewhere. A mistake has been made in 
this case. There is general understanding 
that the right sort of prayers, from the 
right sort of persons, made in the right 
way, are answered. This understanding is 
correct. There is a reason for this general 
faith. 

As a foundation for this faith is the fact 
that God has made specific promises. He 
says that he will answer prayer. We are 
assured that the fervent, effectual prayer 
of a righteous man availeth much. We 
are told that they who ask and seek and 
knock shall be rewarded. We have the 
assurance that God will hear and answer 
and give good things to those who seek 
them from his hands. 

It would be strange if a single soul 
should fail of answer to his prayer if that 
prayer is for something at all in harmony 
with the will of God. It would be In- 
creasingly strange if a desired answer 
should not be secured where many persons 



Prayer. 97 

unite in asking for it. If one good person 
makes a certain prayer, there is a pre- 
sumption in favor of that thing being 
right, and where a large number of good 
persons unite in desiring and asking for 
it, the presumption increases in favor of 
its rightfulness. We then become in- 
creasingly sure that God, who makes it the 
object of his being to advance, and secure 
what is right, will see that this is secured. 

The experience of God's people in all 
ages and lands has been in favor of prayer. 
They have engaged in it, and have been 
satisfied with its results. One of the most 
distinguishing marks of Christian people 
has been the habit of personal prayer. 
They would not have persisted in it, and 
recommended it, and borne testimony to its 
benefits, unless there were something of 
real benefit in it. If painters have always 
used brushes, and sculptors used chisels, 
the presumption is that these are the right 
and appropriate instruments for these 
lines of work; and if Christians have al- 
ways prayed, it is sure as anything can be 
that we shall make a mistake if we do not 
pray. 

The observation, too, of many excellent 
and wise people has been that prayers are 
answered. Of course these prayers must 



98 The Foursquare Christian, 

be for things agreeable to God, for it 
would be preposterous to ask for anything 
else with the expectation of receiving it in 
answer to prayer. These prayers must be 
reverent, believing, earnest prayers, for it 
could not for a moment be expected that 
God would regard any other kind. Let us 
learn to pray in this spirit, and, in line 
with the good and trusting of all ages and 
lands, we shall gain a rich experience, and 
shall have increasing evidences of the 
fact that God answers prayer. 



FAMILY WORSHIP. 

It matters not what societies and organi- 
zations there may be for the nurture and 
development of Christian life, there is 
nothing to take the place of the Christian 
home, and there is nothing in the home to 
take the place of family worship. Other 
things being equal, there is most of piety 
and strong character to be expected from 
that home in which God's Word is read 
daily and prayer offered to God by the 
united household. Out of such homes go 
men and women to walk reverently and 
obediently before God; to do his will, and 
to serve him in their generation. 

If family worship were carried on in 
every home of a congregation, the church 
would be stronger and more hopeful, even 
without prayer meeting, Sabbath-school 
or Christian Endeavor, than it would be 
with these last three, but without family 
worship. This may seem a very sweeping 
statement, but if one will stop to consider 
what is involved, he will scarcely care to 
question it. The Bible would be read aloud 
in the presence of all the members of all 
(99) 



100 The Foursquare Christian. 

these families, including the children, every- 
day, and prayer would be engaged in which 
would, necessarily, be much more personal 
than is possible in most public services. 
The house would be distinctly religious in 
its atmosphere, and children would be 
brought under religious influence as they 
could be under no other circumstances. 

But it would not be necessary to forego 
all the other services to which reference 
has been made. They would be all the 
more appreciated and the better sustained 
by reason of the influences of all these 
family altars, as would be all the "other 
public services of the sanctuary. A 
community can be no better than its homes, 
and a church often lacks spirituality be- 
cause its homes are deficient in divine 
grace. Where parents lead their children 
to serve God, the pastor can lead the com- 
munity to follow him. But however good 
and pious the pastor may be, he is sure to 
be weak if the parents are not upholding 
his hands by piety at home, as Aaron and 
Hur upheld the hands of Moses. 

If the people of this age want a real re- 
vival, let them commence working for it 
and praying for it at home, with their chil- 
dren gathered about them in the exercises 
of family prayer. God blessed the house 



Family Worship. 101 

of Obed-Edom while the Ark of the Cove- 
nant abode under their roof, and he will 
still bless the homes where he is loved and 
honored, as he can not bless "the families 
that call not upon his name.'* The Jewish 
fathers were to hold the Passover service 
in their homes, and they were to explain to 
their children what they meant by the 
service, and out of that fact grew up a 
whole nation that was knit together as one 
great homogeneous people. If fathers would 
oftener explain to their children what is 
meant by the great services and sacraments 
of our evangelical faith, there would be 
more to follow Jesus Christ as the Lamb of 
God who taketh away the sins of the world, 
Many fathers excuse themselves from 
holding family worship by saying that they 
are so hurried that they do not have time. 
There is certainly some time during the 
whole twenty-four hours of each day when 
the entire family could be gathered together 
for five or ten minutes. Presumably it is 
just before breakfast or just after the even- 
ing meal. Let all assemble gravely for a 
little time. Let a passage of Scripture be 
read aloud by the father, or by the family 
alternately, or in unison, and then, kneel- 
ing down, let a short prayer be addressed 
to God, thanking him for his mercies and 



102 The Foursquare Christian. 

beseeching him for continued protection, 
forgiveness, guidance and grace, closing, if 
desirable, with the Lord's Prayer in unison. 
Such scenes as this, depicted, as we find 
it, in Burns' "Cotter's Saturday Night," 
made Scotland great as a God-fearing peo- 
ple, or occurred because her people were 
and have been God-fearing. We must make 
a new effort to establish, or to re-establish, 
family worship in all our families. We 
can not afford to do without it in one single 
Christian home. Dr. Francis E. Clark, 
as he works along the line of pledges, 
has suggested the following, which it 
would be well for every family to 
take if they are not already in the 
practice of that which we have been 
urging: "Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ 
for strength, we will endeavor to maintain 
family worship in our home, and will strive 
to make it, through kindness, courtesy and 
mutual helpfulness, a household of God." 
There is no question as to the desirability 
of it, and there is not a shadow of doubt 
that a blessing would follow its adoption. 



THE USB OF THE BIBLE. 

Many a battle has been fought over the 
Bible, and it is still defended with old- 
time loyalty and zeal. Against the attacks 
of unbelief its friends and advocates have 
marshaled facts and arguments from his- 
tory, from experience and from the very 
nature of the Book itself. It sounds as 
if it had come from God. Its work and 
influence have been that of a divine book. 
There is no other book on earth that 
sounds as though it had come from heaven. 
There is no other book that has so might- 
ily wrought for good among men. Wher- 
ever it has gone it has lifted men up mor- 
ally, spiritually, intellectually and physi- 
cally. Wherever people have accepted its 
help it has made them great. It saves men 
now, and promises an eternal salvation 
through faith in Jesus Christ. We believe 
it. We are going to stand for it, and be- 
lieve it, and defend it. 

It is a great and divine instrument. It 

is a sword with which to fight battles 

against sin of every sort. It is a plow 

with which to break up the soil of human 

( 103 ) 



104 The Foursquare Christian. 

hearts so that God's Spirit may commence 
the vital process there that leads on to the 
harvest of salvation. It is a fire and a 
hammer to break down and destroy the 
hardest and stoniest opposition. It is an 
instrument ordained by God and used by 
the skillful to reach the souls of men, and 
make them wise in the things of eternal 
life. It is great and valuable, and is 
worthy of our supreme efforts to guard 
and defend it. 

But it is not simply to be defended. It 
is for use, constant, wise and diligent. The 
sword that simply hangs in the armory 
is a mere relic, and the Bible is more than 
a relic. The plow that stands under shel- 
ter is in danger of rust and decay, but the 
Bible is for daily use. We are to do a 
great deal more with the Bible than to 
show the reasons for our belief in its di- 
vine origin. We are to put it to the uses 
that God intended when he sent it into 
this world as an instrumentality to be em- 
ployed in saving men. 

A good place to use the Bible is in our 
own private reading and daily life. Of 
course, if we believe it, and it is con- 
cerned with matters of such great impor- 
tance, we shall read it, and read it often 
and much and thoroughly. Are there any 



The Use of the Bible. 105 

of us who have not read it through and 
through? And we shall want to obey It 
and live by it, loo. Whatever light on our 
daily living it gives us we shall want to 
accept. What shall we think of ourselves 
if we are full of fiery zeal in defending the 
Bible, and yet do not live up to what it 
tells us as to daily duty, in all things, 
great and small? 

Another good place to use the Bible is 
in our homes. The good old custom of 
family worship must not be neglected. 
Wherever it is forgotten there is reason 
for solicitude and anxiety. Our homes 
must rest on a sure foundation or they 
are in danger. Our families must be taught 
of God or they will grow up to be godless. 
Our households must have the life of God 
in their hearts or they are without the 
vital power that shall enable them to gst 
the victory over the world, the flesh and 
the devil. However much infidelity there 
may be in the world, let us use the Bible 
in our homes, and not let it be crowded 
out by the daily paper, the latest novel, or 
the demands of business or of social life. 

Another good place to use the Bible is 
in the Sabbath-school. Whether it i3 read 
in the public school or not, there is no rea- 



106 The Foursquare Christian. 

son why it should not be in the Sabbath- 
school. The lesson-leaf is good in Its way, 
and the lesson-text printed on it is the 
Word of God, but it is a good thing for 
every member of the school to have the 
Word of God, in its entirety, in hand, and 
it is good that its great and wholesome 
truths shall be taught in their simplicity 
and their fullness. 

And still another place to use the Bible 
is in the pulpit. Let every minister han- 
dle the Word of God as authority. The 
Bible is the great source of fact, argument, 
illustration and exhortation for the pulpit. 
He who makes much of it is wise. He who 
makes much use of it will be much used 
of Grod. He who puts much honor upon 
it will be much honored of God. 

Let us be zealous in our defense of the 
inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, but let 
us be equally zealous in putting them to 
the use that they were intended for, and 
let us be sensitively resolved to obey their 
divine teachings and to live by every word 
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 



SABBATH OBSERVANCE 

Tlie law of the Sabbath is as binding to- 
day as it ever was, and as binding as any 
one of the ten, commandments. These all 
define duties of such universal application, 
founded on the essential nature of things 
and growing out of the very necessities of 
our nature, that the obligation to respect 
and observe them is a worldwide and 
changeless obligation. In no dispensation, 
under no condition, in no land or age, can 
it ever be right to kill, to steal, to lie, to be 
Idolatrous or profane. And so in every 
condition, in every country and in every 
century, man needs the physical rest, the 
moral and spiritual uplift that comes from 
a proper observance of the Sabbath. No 
one of these commandments has ever been 
abrogated. In the very necessities of the 
case they can not be. They aro each and 
all of them obligatory, and the law of the 
Sabbath equally with that against theft. 

The first day of the week is observed by 

the Christian world as the Sabbath instead 

of the seventh day, as specified in the 

Fourth Commandment. To this a few peo- 

(107) 



108 The Foursquare Christian. 

pie who hold Christian views in general, 
object, and insist that we should all go 
back, as they have done, to the observance 
of the seventh day, or Saturday. We feel 
perfectly satisfied that we should not do so, 
the first day of the week being the Sab- 
bath under the Christian Dispensation. 

We believe unhesitatingly that, from the 
beginning of the world to the resurrection 
of Christ, God appointed the seventh day 
of the week to be the weekly Sabbath: 
and the first day of the week, ever since, 
to continue to the end of the world, which 
is the Christian Sabbath. Those who are 
rooted and grounded in this belief are in 
no danger of being swept away by the 
teachings of those who would go back to 
the seventh day. We find that the first 
day of the week, the day of Christ's resur- 
rection, was the day for the outpouring 
of the Spirit on Pentecost, and the (lay for 
nearly all the religious services mentioned 
in the New Testament, except those occa- 
sions when the apostles went to the Jew- 
ish services in the synagogue to reason 
with the Jewish people out of their Scrip- 
tures and show them that Jesus was the 
Christ. Important religious duties were as- 
signed to the first day of the week, thus 



Sabbath Observance. 109 

designating it as the day for public wor- 
ship, and on this day John had his vision 
of the opened heavens and the glorified 
Savior. 

Christ told his disciples to teach "all 
things whatsoever I have commanded you." 
These i«ien were inspired by the Holy Spirit 
for teaching and writing the truth, and 
Christ promised them that the Spirit should 
bring to their remembrance whatsoever he 
himself had said to them. When we find 
these men, therefore, teaching doctrines in 
their addresses and epistles, we are not to 
think of these as being apart from the 
teachings of Christ, but a part of his 
teachings. The Gospels record some of 
Christ's words; the epistles give us a large 
insight into his teachings. The apostles, 
writing under the inspiration of the Holy 
Spirit, who guided them into an exact re- 
membrance of Christ's words, were made 
the very mouthpiece of Christ himself. 
The change of the Sabbath from the sev- 
enth to the first day of the week was made 
in apostolic times, and is distinctively in- 
dicated in the books of the New Testa- 
ment. The attempt to dissever apostolic 
teachings and practices from those of 
Christ, and to make them of less authority 



110 The Foursquare Chrisftan. 

than his own, is an insult to Christ in- 
stead of an honor, and is a distinct dis- 
crediting of the Holy Spirit. Here, then, 
is the origin of the use of the first day 
of the week, and there is no possibility 
of going back to the seventh day without 
turning our backs upon that which con- 
nects cur faith with our risen Lord. 

There is strong, safe ground to stand on 
in observing the first day of the week as 
we do. Christ is Lord of the Sabbath. He 
said that he was. He changed the day by 
directing his disciples to observe the day 
of his resurrection, the Lord's Day, as the 
Christian Sabbath. We observe it thus, and 
as we trust Christ alone for our salvation, 
and receive help from him to live as his 
children, we strive to keep each one of his 
holy commandments and thus adorn the 
doctrine of God our Savior. 

The Word of God is sufficiently explicit 
as to the nature of the Sabbath and the 
manner in which it is to be observed. It 
is a holy day. It is set apart for a holy 
use. It is to be devoted to the interests of 
our souls. Religious life and culture are 
to have their opportunity, especially on this 
day. Tt is a day in which we are to resi 
from all work save that of necessity and 
mercy. So far as is practicable we are to 



Sabbath Observance. Ill 

spend the day in the public and private 
exercises of God's worship. Thus the hori- 
zon of our thoughts is to be filled with God, 
and we are to seek to glorify him, and to 
become like him. There can be no higher 
conception of life than this. 

It is well for us to call the Sabbath by 
its divinely designated name. We believe 
that the first day of the week is the Sab- 
bath. Why not call it by its name? We 
say in our Shorter Catechism: "From the 
beginning of the world to the resurrection 
of Christ, God appointed the seventh day 
of the week to be the weekly Sabbath; and 
the first day of the week, ever since, to 
continue to the end of the world, which is 
the Christian Sabbath." If we believe it 
to be the Sabbath, as it is, why not call it 
the Sabbath, invariably, to emphasize the 
fact that our observance of it is rooted in 
the divine command? And yet the moral 
effect of this is continually dissipated, as 
people talk of "Sunday-school" and "Sun- 
day rest" and "Sunday worship." The world 
is not going to have very much reverence 
for Sunday as such unless it be believed 
that it is the Sabbath of the Lord our God, 
and there is very little opportunity to make 
the world believe it is the Sabbath unless 
Christian people call it the Sabbath. Of 



112 The Foursquare Christian. 

course the secular name of the day is Sun- 
day, and it is an old heathen name that 
points back to ancestors who worshiped the 
sun and dedicated the first day of the week 
to its honor. 

As Christians our first thought in all 
things should be the glory of God. We 
must make our stand here. We must be 
his witnesses. We must speak the lan- 
guage of his Word. It has long been 
borne in upon us that professed Christiana 
weaken their foundations and give up their 
very principles when they permit them- 
selves to be so secularized in thought and 
speech as to call the Sabbath by the name 
by which the world designates the day. Let 
us teach our children to speak of "Sabbath- 
school." Let the books and papers and 
conventions that designate it as "Sunday- 
school" be kept at a distance until they 
learn a proper reverence for the day. If 
we fight for the Sabbath as a holy day, let 
us fight for It on God's own ground. 



PUBLIC WORSHIP. . 

Among the very highest privileges ac- 
corded to us, for our spiritual enjoyment 
and benefit, is that of public worship. 
Nothing can take the place of it. Where 
it is enjoyed, there is to be found worship 
intensified by our association with others 
who are like-minded, and there is social 
enjoyment elevated to the highest fclane 
and sanctified by the brooding presence of 
the Spirit of God. 

We need to worship. Apart from the fact 
that we owe it as a duty to God our Cre- 
ator, is the corresponding fact that we need 
its subjective effects in our own soul. When 
we worship, we place ourselves directly 
and consciously under the personal influ- 
ence of God, holding personal communion 
with him, and seeking the power of his 
own presence in our hearts. From every 
such act and exercise we go away spirit- 
ually uplifted and purified. To draw near 
to God is good for us, in every way and in 
every sense of the word. The true wor- 
shiper is elevatecT to a higher plane of ex- 
(113) 



114 The Foursquare Christian. 

istefi.ce, and is exhilarated and assured of 
his oneness with God in covenant and in 
communion. 

The best forms of physical exercise bring 
delight and satisfaction to the body, and 
muscles, nerves and tissues are called to 
new health and enjoyment The best forms 
of mental exercise secure rich returns to 
the thinker whose mental faculties are 
stimulated and quickened to larger pow- 
ers of attainment and enjoyment by each 
hearty, healthful and honest exercise. So 
the true worshiper, as he closes his~f ac- 
uities to the outer world and draws near 
to God spiritually, finds a joy, a peace, a 
satisfaction, full of exhilaration and ap- 
proaching ecstacy, as he realizes God's 
presence, and becomes filled with the full- 
ness of God. 

It is a delightful experience when two 
kindred minds hold mutual converse, and 
lind in their association a pleasure that 
fills the fleeting hours with a glow of glad- 
ness. So when a pure and spiritually 
awakened soul draws near to God, there is 
a delight which transcends all other asso- 
ciations and experiences. It is this that 
characterizes the Christian's approach to 
God in prayer. So long as physical hunger 



Public Worship. 115 

is satisfied by food, and mental hunger by 
the thoughts and words of other minds, 
so will the soul of man feel the need of 
prayer and worship, and will find relief 
and peace in its exercise. This is not imag- 
inary. They who think that this expe- 
rience is a fiction simply do not know the 
meaning of prayer. They have not learned 
to pray. They do not know how to pray. 
Public worship is an intensifying of all 
this when the whole company present are 
true worshipers. When there are present 
those who are not worshipers, they may 
prove to be a distraction and an obstacle 
to others. Public worship gives the oppor- 
tunity for many persons to be wrought 
upon by the same agencies of praise and 
prayer and spiritual instruction, under the 
leadership of those who are used by the 
Holy Spirit as the avenues for the com- 
munication of himself to his people. When 
all the conditions are secured, of time and 
place and leadership and sacred exercise 
and harmoniousness of spirit among all 
those who are present, God touches the 
hearts of his people as a skillful musician 
the chords of his instrument, and har- 
monies are evoked whose sweetness and 
>ower linger through the days to come. 



116 The Foursquare Christian. 

There is nothing to take the place of true, 
public worship. God in his wisdom has 
ordained it, and his very ordaining it 
marks it as a gracious privilege ais well as 
an imperative duty. 



THE SPIRIT OF WORSHIP. 
It should be the aim of all who attend 
the public services of the sanctuary to be 
in the spirit of true worshipers. All such 
God is seeking. When they seek God, there 
is a mingling of heavenly influences in the 
human soul, so that glory crowns the 
mercy-seat Those who are devout will seek 
to put away earthly thoughts and cares, 
and to fix their hearts and minds upon 
spiritual things. They will not engage in 
ordinary conversation up to the very mo- 
ment of public worship, but will seek for 
and promote a hush and quiet in the house 
of God previous to the opening of the ser- 
vice. Heart and mind will be able to take 
bold of God. Each part of the worship will 
be entered into with earnest devotion. The 
attention will not be easily attracted to 
trifles or directed from the sacred oppor- 
tunities of the hour. A spirit of sweet 
seriousness will pervade the faculties. 
Prayer, praise, the reading and study of 
the Word of God, will all be engaged in 
as holy privileges, and when the hour has 
passed, it will be remembered as a time 
( 117 ) 



118 The Foursquare Christian. 

when God flooded the soul with the charm 
of his presence. 

It is incumbent upon each one who 
attends public worship in the house of God 
to conduct himself with propriety and rev- 
erence. Others have come to worship, and 
they must not be interrupted. To do so 
would be selfish and ill-mannered. It Is 
robbery to interfere, in a concert, by light 
and trifling behavior, with those who hare 
come anticipating real delight and profit 
in hearing the music, and It is worse to 
come between a soul and its worship in the 
sanctuary. Yet this is what is done by 
those who, by light and irreverent conduct, 
distract the attention which should be 
centered, undisturbed, on sacred things. 

For one to engage in whispering, star- 
ing, reading, writing, smiling, laughing, 
sleeping, or other acts which are disturb- 
ing, is to do what is not only inappro- 
priate, but disgraceful as well. There are 
many things done in church service that 
are rude and wrong. Sometimes we have 
known ministers to be inattentive to the 
siDging, and to converse in the pulpit dur- 
ing this part of the service. Of ten times 
members of the choir will smile and whis- 
per during the sermon, the reading of the 
Scriptures, or even during prayer. Such 



The Spirit of Worship. 119 

acts amount to sacrilege, the only excuse 
that can be made being that those who are 
guilty of it are ignorant or ill-bred. 

How comforting and satisfying it is to 
attend a sacred service where everything 
is in good taste and full of the sweet and 
sacred spirit which should characterize 
God's house and its assemblies. From such 
a meeting the minister and his people go 
refreshed and uplifted. They have met 
with God. Human elements have not in- 
terfered or obtruded themselves. God has 
been met with, and his holy presence has 
been felt. It is to their souls as the water- 
brooks to the thirsty hart. 

There have been instances of persons 
coming to God's house to scoff and remain- 
ing to pray, but usually when one comes 
in that frame of mind he is like the way- 
side on which the seed falls, only to be de- 
voured by the fowls of the air. He who 
forgets the sacredness of time and place 
and occasion when God's people are met in 
the sanctuary for holy worship, and who 
mocks and scoffs, is in a condition scarce- 
ly to be graciously changed even by the 
Holy Spirit. Let one keep his foot and 
his hand and his lip when he comes into 
the house of God, and let him be more 

i 



120 The Foursquare Christian. 

ready to hear than to offer the sacrifice of 
fools. 

A very impressive admonition, often re- 
peated, is to this effect: "Whoever thou art 
that enter est this sanctuary, leave it not 
without a prayer for thyself, for those who 
minister, and for those who worship here." 
It is worthy counsel. We should come into 
the house of God with the humble spirit 
of sincere worship in our hearts, and 
should engage in every act of the service 
with the earnest desire that our own souls 
may be spiritually enriched and that God 
may be glorified. With this as our ani- 
mating purpose we shall find, in even the 
humblest sanctuary service, much to build 
us up in the inner life and to help us, in 
our outer life, adorn the doctrine of God 
our Savior. 

It is a great thing to know how to con- 
duct a public service so that it shall be 
conducive to the spirit of worship, and so 
that it shall lead the worshipers on, 3tep 
by step and thought by thought, into the 
presence and grace of God. He who does 
it must be a man of God, accustomed to 
his presence, and loving to bring others 
within the range of his blessing. 

It is a great thing to know how to retire 



The Spirit of Worship. 121 

from the place of worship in such a way 
that its blessings may not be dispersed. 
To speak with kind and loving greetings 
to others and yet avoid the elements that 
jar on the life of the spirit; to cultivate 
quietness without appearing to be austere; 
and to show an interest in others without 
losing what the soul needs to carry away 
for itself, are, all of them, worthy of 
thoughtful attention that they may be 
attained, to the glory of God and the en- 
richment of the life of the worshiper. 



(9) 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy * * * mind." — Mark 

xii. jo. 

* * * 

" Those things which are most surely 
believed among us" — Luke i. i. 

• * * 

"Those things which are revealed 
belong to us and to our children" — 
Deut. xxix. 29. 

* • • 

"Take heed unto thyself and unto the 
doctrine" — 1 Tim. iv. 16. 

• * • 

" We speak that we do know, and tes- 
tify that we have seen" — John Hi. II. 



AUTHORITY IN RELIGION. 

An intelligent being believes what he has 
sufficient reason for believing. To believe 
on credible evidence is intelligent faith. 
To refuse to so believe is as unintelligent 
as to believe what there is no possible rea- 
son or excuse for believing. 

But what shall we believe? What is to be 
the basis of our faith? What shall be the 
authority in accordance with which we 
shall shape our beliefs and our life? Upon 
our answers to these questions our re- 
ligious status is to be determined. 

What is God's will and what does he 
wish us to believe, and how does he expect 
us to live? Has he revealed himself to us 
authoritatively, so that we may know in 
regard to these vital matters? Have we 
any authority on these points which shall 
be to us an end of controversy? Is there 
any authority, or any actual Basis for faith ; 
in religious matters, or are we all at sea., 
each one believing as he may choose to 
believe? Is it possible, still further, that we 
are at the mercy of men who claim au- 
thority and the right to exercise it accord- 
ing to laws in their own keeping? 
(123) 



124 The Foursquare Christian. 

If each, person is a law to himself, then 
religion is a mere emotional fancy or con- 
dition. If so, one form of religion is as 
good as another, or as bad as another. If 
religion be not the acceptance or mainte- 
nance of a definite relation to God, along 
the lines of a revelation of Ms will; if It 
is merely a self-originated emotion or a 
self-devised impulse to an exalted life, then 
it is certainly the most uncertain and in- 
definite thing in life, depending on taste 
and temperament, and of such a nature that 
there is no allowable censure for him who 
chooses to dispense with it altogether. 

If, on the other hand, authority be lodged 
in any one man or body of men who de- 
mand and secure spiritual jurisdiction over 
our lives and our consciences, we are in a 
condition of absolute spiritual servitude. 
No more abject slavery could be im- 
agined than that in which we should 
be fettered, and no more unbounded des- 
potism could be devised than that 
which this class of men would be most 
likely to exercise. Men may submit them- 
selves to a moral law, however rigorous, 
if tney know that it is the law or God, and 
that all are bound by it, and if its limita- 
tions are well known. Men may accept 
spiritual teachings, even though mortifying 



Authority in Religion. 125 



to their natural inclinations, if they know 
that they come from the infinitely wise and 
gracious God, who has in mind and heart 
the enlightening and saving of his crea- 
tures. But to be held in the power of men 
who enforce their own demands, claiming 
them to be God's latest revelations, is to 
be enslaved in a bondage which means the 
galling and deadening of every part of the 
being. 

But we believe that God has revealed 
his will in a Book which may be read and 
known by us all. We have satisfying proof 
that the Scriptures are the Word of God. 
We believe that God there teaches. It is 
intelligent faith to believe the teachings 
of God's Word. To be guided by them is 
the part of the highest wisdom. To reject 
them is the greatest mistake that can be 
made by any human being. This Scriptural 
faith is reasonable; it is safe; it is the way 
of true liberty of life and of conscience. 
Others may help us to understand God's 
Word, but there is no authority in any such 
assistance. No creed, no confession, no ser- 
mon, no commentary or explanation has 
in itself authority, its only semblance of 
authority being its faithfulness to the truth 
in its interpretation of God's Word. No 
man, no class of men, no organization, can 



126 The Foursquare Christian. 

nave final power over any soul, God him- 
self being the one to whom each one is 
finally and supremely accountable. 

The Bible, and the Bible alone, i3 the 
formal source of authority in religion for 
those who would be strong and secure in 
their faith; who would be delivered from 
the fanciful and fantastic, from the despotic 
and tyrannical. To know and follow Christ 
as he is revealed in the Word by the 
Spirit means to accept the highest and sole 
authority in religion and to be free from 
sinful and human bondage. 



OUR INFALLIBLE GUIDE. 

We believe the Scriptures to be the Word 
of God, the only infallible rule of faith and 
practice, and that nothing will ever be 
found to contradict or set aside their plain 
and intended meaning. Being from God 
it is truth. With it nothing can conflict, 
since truth is always the will of God, on 
any subject or in any department of his 
creation. God being the author of truth, 
we can be sure that he will never contra- 
dict himself. For instance, there can never 
be anything in real science to contradict 
the real teachings of God's Word. 

What the Word of God distinctly teaches 
we are to accept unquestionably, and we 
aie to believe and obey without a thought 
of hesitation. Whatever is in conflict with 
this teaching we are to reject. Where we 
have no positive, explicit teaching on any 
point, we are to be guided by the spirit of 
the Word and are to be careful that what- 
ever conclusions we arrive at shall be in 
perfect harmony with the divine teach- 
ings. There are very few points where 
there need be any hesitancy, and the in- 
telligent, prayerful and reverent student of 
(127) 



128 The Foursquare Christian. 

the Holy Scriptures will always be able to 
know his duty in any circumstances of life, 

Standing right here we are secure. 
We have authority, open and accessible to 
all, for what we believe and enjoin. We 
are free from the uncertainties that arise 
from conflicting authorities. We know 
that we have the last word spoken on the 
great subjects of faith and life, and that 
no one can come to us with rightful claim 
of having a more recent proclamation or 
decision from God. 

The Roman Catholic Church claims to 
believe the Scriptures, but no one may 
positively know what else it believes or 
what is the latest phase of its interpreta- 
tion. It has a great mass of apocryphal 
writings which are placed on a par with 
the canonical Scriptures, and a great body 
of tradition which must be respected by its 
teachers and members, and there is no 
final interpretation until it comes from 
their "infallible'' Pope. No one is safe in 
his faith under this system. There may al- 
ways be some later returns to set at 
r aught the conclusions at which he has ar- 
rived. 

In the growth and development of the 
work of the Church new methods may call 
for adoption which are not exactly named 



Our Infallible Guide. 129 

in the Word of God, but the thing in es- 
sence may be there without any doubt 
Tnus the Sabbath-school and its usual of- 
ficers are not named in any of the sacred 
books, but the religious instruction of the 
young is there directed positively, and in 
the divine Providence the most effective 
method is, unless some law be overlooked 
or disregarded, the nearest to the divine 
provision. Missionary societies and boards, 
theological seminaries and religious col- 
leges, family worship and other forms of 
Christian work and service may not be 
mentioned by name in the Scriptures, but 
they are there in their real essence, and as 
we use them with consecrated purpose we 
do the will of God in harmony with the 
revelation of his will. 

As to the doctrines we believe and teach, 
we are to be guided by what we find on 
the sacred page. Here we discover all that 
God sees we really need to know. Let us 
be reverent students, praying as we read 
that he who inspired the message may 
shine upon the page and may shine into 
cur hearts so that in his light we may see 
light, and may know and understand the 
truth as it is in Jesus. 

There is great satisfaction in the study 
of the Scriptures. Here is a mine of inex- 



130 The Foursquare Christian. 

h&ustible information as to matters of the 
profoundest importance. Here we learn 
what God has taught us as to himself and 
ourselves; of our sinfulness and of his 
holiness; of his holy laws bearing on every 
department of our life, and of his redemp- 
tion of grace whereby he restores his peo- 
ple and leads them in the way of salva- 
tion. Here are revealed to us what we 
need to know of the Father, the Son and 
the Holy Spirit, of life and death, of heaven 
and hell. Here shines divine light on the 
believer's daily pathway, showing him how 
to walk and pray and do God's will. Here 
we learn of Christian life and work and of 
the ordinances of God's house. Sufficient 
is the Word of God as a lamp to our feet 
and a light to our path in all our earthly 
pilgrimage. 



WHAT IS GOD? 

There can be no perfect definition of 
God for, being infinite,he can not be defined. 
There have been many attempted defini- 
tions, but they are all necessarily imper- 
fect. We have only a partial knowledge of 
him, and even if he were to make a com- 
plete revelation of himself, we should not 
be able, with our finite powers, to grasp 
the infinite truth. We are to be very rever- 
ent when we undertake to tell of God. 

It would be very incorrect, however, 
should we say that we know nothing of 
God. We do know many great and glorious 
truths about him. He has seen fit to re- 
veal himself to us in many gracious ways. 
He has manifested himself to us in Cre- 
ation, in Providence, in the Holy Scrip- 
tures, in Christ and through his Holy 
Spirit, and we know so much about him 
and about the duty we owe to him, that 
if we do not love and obey him we shall 
be left without excuse and be involved in 
eternal ruin. 

God is the great uncaused first-cause 
and the uncreated source of all that exists. 
He is our Creator and our Preserver. The 
(131) 



132 The Foursquare Christian. 

universe is the work of his own hands. He 
spake and it was done; he commanded 
and it stood fast. The Scriptures do not 
undertake to prove that God exists or to 
tell us how he came to exist. In the very 
first words that are recorded his being is 
sublimely postulated in the magnificent 
announcement: "In the beginning God 
created." 

God is a Person. He is not merely a 
pow r er at work in the heart of things, a 
tendency, an impulse, the life that is every- 
where manifest, in the atoms of the vege- 
table and animal streams of existence. Nor 
is he merely the power that works invisibly 
and impersonally to promote the cause of 
righteousness, according to an unerring law 
that makes the right to succeed in the long 
run. People sometimes talk very vaguely, 
endeavoring to banish God as a person 
from the universe, and yet under the cover 
of polite words that will veil their atheistic 
attitude and spirit. God is a person who, 
with a wise plan and a gracious purpose, 
an infinitely loving heart and an inflexible 
will, is ruling the universe, material and 
spiritual, which he himself created. 

God is a Spirit. He is not limited by 
a body as are we. He is not circumscribed 
by conditions of time or place. He is 



What is Godf 133 

everywhere present. He is the same yes^ 
terday, to-day and forever. A thousand 
years are in his sight as one day, and 
one day as a thousand years. He is about 
us, and we can not perceive him with our 
bodily senses, and we can not elude him 
though we flee to the uttermost parts of the* 
earth. The darkness and the light are 
both alike to him. The words of our mouth 
are known to him before they are uttered ; 
and the inmost thoughts of our hearts lie 
open before the sight of him with whom we 
have to do. His judgments are unsearch- 
able and his ways past finding out. 

Outside the Holy Scriptures themselves, 
no more satisfactory or wiser words were 
ever framed in reference to the Supreme 
Being than the answer in the Westminster 
Shorter Catechism to the question: "What 
is God?" "God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal 
and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, 
power, holiness, justice, goodness and 
truth." These were the words that came 
to the lips of George Gillespie, while lead- 
ing the Assembly as it was bowed in 
prayer, asking for wisdom to frame a 
proper answer to this great question. They 
were accepted as an answer to the prayer 
and were adopted as an answer to the ques- 
tion, and no one has ever been able to 



134 The Foursquare Christian. 

add or take away a word for the improve- 
ment of the definition as it was then 
adopted. These words are worthy of a 
place in our minds as an aid to us in our 
comprehension of him to whom we should 
render adoring and loving obedience. 

This one only living and true God ha3 
made himself known to us as Father, Son 
and Holy Spirit. In his infinite, eternal 
and unchangeable spiritual personality we 
worship him with reverence and Godly fear, 
seeking to know and do his holy will. We 
are sinners by nature and he is holy; we are 
weak and he is almighty; we are ignorant 
and he is omniscient: we are little in all 
our being and faculties and he is infinite 
hi all his attributes. But be invites us to 
come to him in repentance and seek his 
forgiveness; in faith and a*>k his justifying 
mercy; in trustful confidence and accept 
his gracious and eternal favor. So we 
come to him in the name of Jesus Christ, 
who has taught us to pray, saying, "Our 
Father which art in heaven/' 



CHRIST, THE ETERNAL SON. 

Christ is to us the revelation of God. 
We find it said: "No man hath seen God at 
any time. The only begotten Son, which 
is in the bosom of the Father, he hath re- 
vealed him." It is in the person of Christ, 
the incarnate God, that we learn what God 
is and what he wishes us to think of him- 
self. 

It is to be remembered that the mani- 
festations or revelations of God have been 
made through the Second Person of the 
Trinity. Christ is called the Word because 
he speaks or makes known the eternal and 
infinite truth of the absolute God which 
we could never have known without such 
revelation, for "No man hath seen God at 
any time." 

The Word spoke at Creation. This was 
Christ, the Second Person. "God said." 
That was the Word speaking. Creation was 
Christ's work. We read in Eph. i. 16, "For 
by him were all things created, that are in 
heaven, and that are in earth, visible and 
invisible, whether they be thrones or do- 
minions or principalities or powers; all 
f 135) 



136 The Foursquare Christian. 

things were created by him and for him.*' 
This is clear and plain. The universe in 
all its beauty and glory is an outgoing of 
the power and love of God through Christ 
the great Revealer and Manifester of God. 

The Word spoke with especial clearness 
in the Holy Scriptures. Here we find God 
manifested. Here is a wonderful expres- 
sion of the divine truth, in revealing the 
mind and will and character of God. If 
there had never been anything more than 
this, we should be utterly without excuse 
should we go on in sin against God. Christ, 
through the Holy Spirit, spoke to the 
prophets and apostles and evangelists, and 
guided them in making the record in this 
holy volume which is called with clear dis- 
tinction, the Word of God. 

But the Word spoke with the plainest 
revelation in the divine-human life of 
Jesus Christ. In his words and actions 
we learn as nowhere else the real life and 
character of God. We do well to be docile 
and reverent as we listen to him and look 
upon him. The life of God is manifest in 
Christ, and his life is the light of men, 
to shine into their hearts and on their 
pathways to show them the way to glory. 

In Christ we learn that God is holy. 



Christ, the Eternal Son. 137 

Everywhere through the whole of Christ's 
earthly life shone the light of perfect holi- 
ness. No one has ever dared to accuse 
him of wrong-doing. Even the worst ene- 
mies of the Gospel have never dared to 
speak one word of evil against Jesus. In 
his absolute consciousness of holiness he 
said himself: "Which of you convinceth me 
of sin?" He taught spiritual holiness, not 
a mere morality of life. He pleaded for a 
deep and sincere holiness of life and heart, 
so that we should be pure and loving in the 
very depths of our being where only our 
own eyes and the eye of God can search us. 

In Christ we learn that God is loving. 
There is no mistaking this if we read what 
Christ said, and of what Christ did. We 
come to feel that Christ had a heart of ten- 
derness infinitely more tender than human 
beings in their best conditions. He loved 
not only friends and neighbors, not only 
the helpless and friendless, not only the 
outcast and miserable, but the sinful and 
defiled. For them he was ready to give up 
his ease and comfort, and sacrifice himself 
to bless them. His life and words taught 
love to all the world and teach us still how 
God loves us. 
(10> 



138 The Foursquare Christian. 

In Christ we learn that God is just. The 
love of Christ was not weak amiability. It 
did not overlook the difference between 
sin and holiness. It did not express in- 
difference as to moral distinctions. It 
sought to save sinners, but we were taught 
that sin is so hateful and so terrible a 
thing that in order to save men from it 
the Savior must die. On Calvary he did 
die, the Just for the unjust, that he might 
reconcile us to God. 

The great truths of Creation, Providence, 
Revelation and Redemption come to us 
through Jesus Christ. We learn from him 
the holiness, love and justice of God, and 
we should be led by him to repentance, 
saving faith and adoring love. 



SIN AND THE ATONEMENT. 

Law has its penalties. It commands, 
but it threatens at the same time. If the 
command is not obeyed, or is disobeyed, 
the penalty follows. We disregard law 
then upon our own peril, and violation 
brings consequences that may involve us 
in great sorrow and pain and loss. He 
who violates the law as to fire is burned, 
and he who disregards the law of the at- 
traction of gravitation may be crushed. 

Human government could not exist 
without laws regulating the relations and 
dealings of men, and these laws have their 
penal sanctions, with officers and courts 
for passing judgment and administering 
penalties. If men were permitted to live 
and act as they chose, neither person nor 
property would be safe; violence would 
prevail; evil would reign, and society 
would be involved in ruin. Laws must be 
made and enforced to hold evil in check 
and to protect the innocent, defenceless 
and law-abiding. 

The divine government can not exist 
without law. God is good, but he is wise 
(139) 



140 The Foursquare Christian. 

and he is just. In carrying on his moral 
and spiritual government wisdom and 
justice are as necessary as goodness. There 
could be no goodness without these other 
attributes, as without them his govern- 
ment would perish, and all would be in- 
volved in ruin. 

Sin is a terrible thing. He who does 
not think so has no proper conceptions of 
right and wrong, of God's nature and au- 
thority, or of our relations and duties. 
Sin is rebellion. Sin is atheistic in its es- 
sence. It strives to rob God of his throne 
and crown. Sin is destructive to moral 
order, and if permitted to go on unre- 
buked and unchecked, would bring disas- 
ter and ruin to the universe. But sin 
will not go unpunished. God reigns and 
will reign and must reign. The soul that 
sins against him and his holy laws must 
die. But it is a terrible thing to receive 
the sentence of death and all are sinners. 
To punish all sinners would mean black- 
ness of darkness eternal for all. 

God is not willing that all should perish. 
He takes no pleasure in the death of any 
sinner, and would rather that each and 
all would turn to him and live. He criea 
from his loving heart, "Turn ye, turn ye, 



Sin and the Atonement. 141 

for why will ye die?" He invites us to 
turn from our sins in repentance. If we 
only heed his words, we must be startled 
and led to realize our terrible condition. 
Why should we not be sorry for our sin, 
as well as horrified at the knowledge of 
the results of our sin? When we stop and 
listen to the pleadings and warnings of 
God we see that he is grieved over our 
course and our condition, and we see the 
terrible gulf yawning at our feet. If we 
will turn to God, he will forgive us, de- 
livering us from the wrath to come, and 
taking us back to his favor. 

But even God can not forgive sin with- 
out regard to its punishment. This would 
be to override law and set it aside at his 
arbitrary pleasure. No government could 
survive such a course. God does not at- 
tempt it. Jesus Christ has taken the place 
of the sinner. He has died in the stead of 
all those who will accept him as their 
substitute. He is just and holy, and the 
law had no claim upon him, and when he 
yielded himself as a sacrifice for sinners 
his infinite merits fully satisfied all the 
claims that Justice could have upon all 
finite ones who would, come repentantly 
accepting his mercy. In his person the 
law was vindicated as holy, all just de- 



142 The Foursquare Christian. 

mands against repentant and believing 
sinners were satisfied, and God is able in 
bis love for sinners to pardon and accept 
and save all who come in tbe name of 
Christ. 

No one claims to understand all the tre- 
mendous significancy of the Atonement. 
But we may accept Christ as our atoning 
Savior and feel and know that we are at 
peace with God. To this we are invited. 
The truth of the Atonement humbles mam 
and exalts and glorifies God. It reveals 
him to us as unwilling that we should 
perish and devising means, at infinite cost 
to himself, for our salvation. If we dis- 
regard this saving love of God in Christ 
for us, we are lost without remedy. If 
we repent and believe, the blood of Jesus 
Christ cleanses us from all sin. 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ 
from the dead was an expression of his al- 
mighty power. He had told the disciples 
that he had power to lay down his life and 
power to take it up again. After his resur- 
rection they remembered that he had as- 
serted this, and their faith in him was made 
all the stronger. There was a convincing 
proof of his divineness in his fulfillment of 
such a promise as thi3. 

The resurrection of Christ convinces us 
also of the value of his death. It was to 
be an atoning death for his believing peo- 
ple. He was to be wounded for their 
transgressions and bruised for their in- 
iquities, the chastisement of their peace was 
to be laid upon him and by his stripes they 
were to be healed. Christ's death was more 
than that of a good man. It was the death 
cf the divine Son of God who came into 
this world to live and die for men. He 
Tvas not simply a martyr who is assailed 
and persecuted and killed. He was the 
atoning Savior who, voluntarily and lov- 
ingly, died that we might live. Had he 
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144 The Foursquare Christian. 

not risen, his enemies would have rejoiced 
over his absolute defeat, and his friends 
would have sorrowed and cherished his 
memory. But Christ arose. He fulfilled 
every promise. He triumphed over death, 
the grave and his enemies. He rejoiced his 
followers, and has been their victorious 
leader and Lord. 

The resurrection of Christ assures us 
that he is able also to raise us from the 
dead. We trust our future life to him 
without fear. We are sure that he who was 
able to rise from the grave is able to raise 
all those who trust in him. This is an im- 
measurable comfort. The grave is robbed 
of its darkness. Death is no king of ter- 
rors to us. When we die, if we are God's 
children, we know that we have been sent 
for By our Heavenly Father, and we go 
in the faith of Jesus to be forever with him 
who has power to deliver us from death and 
the fear of death. 

When Christ was upon earth he raised 
many persons from death. There was the 
lil tie maiden who had jusT died. There was 
the widow's eon who was being carried to 
his burial. There was Lazarus, who had 
been dead for four days, upon whose flesh 
was already the inread of corruption. We 
roay believe there were others among the 



The Resurrection of Christ. 145 

many miracles of healing which he 
wrought, as well as among the saints who 
arose at the time of his crucifixion. All 
these were healed oy a wor 1. Each case 
was an absolute impossibility to any one 
else, but easy to him who tad infinite 
power. 

We believe, if we are God's children, that 
there is for us a future life of beauty and 
joy and holiness. We believe that if the 
divine life has been implanted in us, it will 
live on forever, and will come into the full- 
ress and glory of the resurrected life, by 
the divine grace that comes to us in Jesus 
Christ. We believe this because we know 
that he arose from the dead, and that he 
ascended into glory, and that he has prom- 
ised that where he is there his loved ones 
also shall be. In this hope we endure and 
rejoice. 

Each Sabbath day impresses on our 
minds the truth of Christ's resurrection. 
Each Easter is an anniversary of this au- 
gust event. It comes at th-a time when 
leaves and flowers and grass and buds are 
awaking after the winter's sleep. But 
Easter is more than a matter of poetry and 
nature. It is a time of great joy and 
beauty and hope in the natural world, but 
the spring comes even to those who know 



146 The Foursquare Christian. 

not Christ. The great fact of Easter is 
that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and 
that he has power to save and to bring 
with him into the everlasting life all those 
who love and trust him. 



CHRIST EXALTED. 

Christ's resurrection from the dead was 
the first element in his exaltation, or re- 
sumption of the eternal glory which he had 
with the Father. In the resurrection he 
was declared to be the Son of God with 
power. He had power to lay down his 
life as a sacrifice for sin, and now it was 
proved that he had power to take it up 
again. His death was not a triumph for 
his enemies. He was not merely an amia- 
ble but mistaken friend of sinners, nor a 
martyr to lofty theories and convictions. 
His resurrection was the vindication of 
his claim to be the Son of God, who died 
to give life to those who should believe on 
his name. 

From this point everything was on the 
re-ascending scale. For forty days he re^- 
mained upon earth, deepening, by many in- 
terviews with his disciples, their confidence 
in and their love and reverence for him 
as their risen Lord. Such were his reve- 
lations of himself to them and such his 
interviews and assuring communications, 
that they never could doubt that Christ 
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148 The Foursquare Christian. 

whom they had followed, and whose death 
they had witnessed, was indeed risen from 
the dead. 

Christ's ascension at the end of the forty 
days was another element in his exalta- 
tion. He had simply tabernacled in the 
flesh for a time on earth, and now he 
ascends to his native home in the skies. 
While the eyes of his disciples were upon 
him, he was taken up and disappeared in 
the opened heavens, and as they lingered, 
still watching with longing eyes, the angels 
appeared to them and announced that he 
would in like manner come again. When 
he is to come again we know not, but we 
do know that he has gone to his home in 
heaven, there to prepare a place for his 
people and there to welcome them into 
his own, holy presence, that where he is 
they may be also. Where heaven is we do 
not know, but we do know that it is where 
Christ is, and that he has been gathering 
his people there to be with him. Where 
Christ and his loved ones are is the heaven 
toward which our hearts turn in prayerful 
longing and joyous anticipation. 

Christ's heavenly life is still another ele- 
ment in his exaltation. He has entered 
into heaven itself now to appear in the 
presence of God for us. Having offered his 



Christ Exalted. 149 

one sacrifice for sin forever, he sat down 
on the right hand of God. In that place 
of highest honor and distinction he is our 
Prophet, whose words are being fulfilled 
on earth for the instruction and edifica- 
tion of his people; he is our Priest who 
was once offered to bear the sins of many 
and whose death and sufferings his people 
on earth are to commemorate until he 
comes again; he is our King, there execut- 
ing his high office in subduing us to him- 
self, in ruling and defending us, and in re- 
straining and conquering all his and our 
enemies. He is our living and compas- 
sionate Savior, our sympathizing friend and 
helper, the prevailing advocate for all the 
sinful ones who come repentantly, plead- 
ing the merits of his great name. There 
in his exalted life "he is before all things 
and by him all things consist"; "for it 
pleased the Father that in him should all 
fullness dwell." 

But Christ is to judge the world at the 
last day. He is to be the Judge of the 
living and the dead. We must all appear 
before the judgment seat of Christ. The 
hands that were nailed to the cross of 
Calvary now hold the sceptre of universal 
dominion, and the voice that once said: 
"Come unto me all ye that are weary and 



150 The Foursquare Christian. 

heavy laden, and I will give you rest," 
will on that day speak the words of wel- 
come into the eternal joy of heaven, or will 
pronounce the final doom of the unrepent- 
ant that shall be for their banishment into 
everlasting perdition. Judgment is so ter- 
tible that it has been committed to the 
hands of infinite love. The love and grace 
of the Lamb of God are tender and saving, 
but those who trample upon them will 
some day cry to the rocks and the moun- 
tains to fall upon, them and hide them from 
the wrath of the Lamb. Let us love and 
follow him ? that we may meet him with 
gladness and enter into the eternal joy 
of our Lord. 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

Whenever we repeat the Apostles' Creed 
we say, "I believe in the Holy Ghost." 
In that brief statement of Christian faith 
there is no explanation or specification of 
what we believe in reference to the Holy 
Spirit, but the words involve faith in his 
existence and in his good and gracious 
work for and within us. The Scriptures 
have much to say of his person and work, 
and it is for us to be very reverent and 
worshipful before him, welcoming his pres- 
ence and power in our hearts and lives, and 
rendering implicit obedience to his in- 
structions and guidance as they come to us 
in his Word and his providential dealings. 

The Holy Spirit is the third person in the 
Trinity, the same in substance with, and 
equal in power and glory to, the Father 
and the Son, possessing the same attributes 
and equally interested with them in the 
works of Providence and Redemption. He 
is the Person through whom life is com- 
municated in the kingdoms of Nature and 
of Grace. He moved upon the face of the 
waters in Creation's dawn to bring life 
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152 The Foursquare Christian. 

and order out of chaos, and he moved upon 
the minds of holy men, so that they spoke 
and wrote the Words of God in the Holy 
Scriptures. Prophets and Apostles were in- 
spired by him to write the Word of God, 
and he has providentially preserved it in 
its purity, so that it has come down to 
us to-day as the Holy Scriptures, which 
we are to search for God's message to our 
own souls. In the study of this sacred 
volume we may well pray for the illumina- 
tion of the Holy Spirit who first inspired 
it, so that "in his light we may see light. ,, 

The Holy Spirit is the efficient source 
of spiritual life in each believer. He con- 
victs men of sin, leads them to repentance, 
gives to them the new birth from on high, 
savingly unites them to Jesus Christ, gives 
to them the spirit of prayer and adoption, 
and awakens within them the glad assur- 
ance that they are the saved and accepted 
children of God. 

The Holy Spirit dwells in the hearts of 
his people, making them to live if! vital 
union with Jesus Christ and binding them 
together in his great Body, the Church, so 
that each spiritual member of the Church 
is, through the Spirit, one with Christ, the 
Head. He directs the life and work of the 
Church, calling and anointing his ministers 



The Holy Spirit. 153 

and other officers for their sacred duties, 
imparting needed grace to his people, giv- 
ing efficacy to his Word, protecting and en- 
larging his Church, superintending it in 
its evangelistic and missionary operations, 
and brioging on the glorious consummation 
when his Church shall fill the whole earth 
and his people, at last, be brought into 
eternal holiness and happiness in heaven. 

This is known as the Dispensation of the 
Spirit. There has never been a time in 
the history of the earth or the Church 
when the Holy Spirit was not active in 
the world as the source of all life and good- 
ness, but he has been especially powerful 
since he was "roured out" on Pentecost 
according to the covenant of Christ and 
"the promise of the Father." We are to 
honor him in every way as the source of all 
spiritual grace and graces, but we are to 
remember that his great work in the Gos- 
pel was to be that of taking of Jesus and 
showing him to us. So we honor the Holy 
Spirit most when, in dependence upon him, 
we honor Jesus Christ most, and hold him 
up as the only Savior of sinful men. 

As the Holy Spirit regenerates he also 
sanctifies. Each advance in the believer's 
life is to be by his grace and under his 
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154 The Foursquare Christian. 

guidance. He is the Paraclete, or Com- 
forter, of Christ's Church and people. He 
is the Superintendent, as we may say, of 
present Christian life and work, carrying 
all on to completion. He seals believers 
unto the day of redemption. He may be 
grieved, but, although we read of the wrath 
of God, and even of the Lamb, we do not 
read of the wrath of the Holy Spirit. How 
shameful to do despite to his work! How 
careful should we be not to quench his 
operations in our hearts when he would 
lead us on to large usefulness in speaking 
and working for his cause! Day by day 
let us open our hearts and our lives to 
him, that we may know what it is to pray 
in the Holy Ghost and to be filled with all 
the fullness of God. 



THE CHURCH. 

The whole number of the saved who final- 
ly are to he gathered together in heaven 
constitute the Church of God, which he 
hath purchased with his own blood. To be 
a believing child of God is to be one of this 
number, a real member of this great 
church. Because it can not be thoroughly 
seen by mortal vision we call it the "In- 
visible Church." It is the Church as God 
sees it. Part of its membership are al- 
ready in heaven; some are on earth. "Part 
of the host have crossed the flood, and part 
are crossing now." They come from every 
land and tribe and tongue and nation, but 
they will all be alike in being able to sing 
the song of praise: "Unto him who hath 
loved us and hath washed us in his own 
precious blood." 

The Church as it exists on earth consists 
of all those who profess the true religion, 
together with their children. It is not con- 
fined to any one of the various bodies who 
profess adherence to Jesus, and who are 
engaged in proclaiming his Gosepl. These 
exist with more or less purity. Some hold 
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156 The Foursquare Christian. 

the truth with great steadfastness and 
purity of doctrine and life. Others are bo 
impure as scarcely to merit the name of 
churches of Christ. Nevertheless, the Lord 
knoweth them that are his, and each per- 
son who believes in Christ should be a 
member of his visible church here on 
earth. 

To his Church Christ has given an or- 
ganization, as we may learn from the New 
Testament, with the ministry and other 
officers, sacraments and other ordinances, 
and has directed that his Word shall be 
preached and his work carried on, to the 
end that sinners may be saved and Chris- 
tians may be edified, promising his pres- 
ence and Spirit unto the end of the world. 
The Church then has an infinitely im- 
portant place and mission, and is not to 
be considered as one of, or as on the same 
plane with, the human organizations which, 
however excellent and beneficent, may at 
any time have existence. 

God has always had a church upon earth, 
and will preserve it, in spite of the errors 
and other impurities that may arise from 
within, and the persecutions that may as- 
sail it from without. It is the duty of all 
who love Christ not only to be members of 
his church, but to use all efforts to ad- 



The Church. 157 



vance its interests, to hold and teach the 
truth in its purity, to stand fast in sin- 
cerity of heart and life, and to guard it 
against all enemies who, from within or 
without, shall rise up against it. 

We are not to consider as a part of the 
true Church every organization that ap- 
propriates to itself the name of church. 
Some of these bodies are mere travesties 
or counterfeits, and from their grossness 
of life and repudiation of Christian doc- 
trine, are to be opposed as injurious and 
misleading, and we are to do what lies In 
our power to deliver from them those who 
have been or who are in danger of being 
led into their bounds. 

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only Head 
of the Church. The claims of the Pope of 
Rome to be the Head of the Church are 
utterly false, and the assumption of this, 
01 of any other body, to be the only true 
church have no foundation whatever. The 
Presbyterian form of government is most 
nearly of all others conformed to the model 
found in the New Testament; its doctrine 
is Scriptural, its historic record is vener- 
able, and its present life is that of loyal 
obedience to Jesus Christ, and while it has 
humble confidence that it is a part of the 
body of Christ on earth it would repudiate 



158 The Foursquare Christian. 

with vehemence any claim that there are 
not other bodies that have a similar right 
to be so considered. 

The true Christian will seek for a place 
in the church, will be faithful in attendanca 
upon its services, will bring up his chil- 
dren in the nurture and admonition of the 
Lord, and will give of his money, his time, 
his influence and his prayers for the 
strengthening and upbuilding of the cause 
of Christ on earth. 



FAITH AND SALVATION. 

The Gospel is God's offer of life to sin- 
ners. It comes in the name of Christ and 
makes a free offer of the most important 
thing that any human being can possibly 
ask or accept. It tells of God's willing- 
ness to pardon sin and to receive the sin- 
ner as his own child, entitled to the gifts 
of his grace here on earth and to a happy 
and holy immortality in heaven. It would 
seem that every person in the world would 
be swift to claim these offered blessings. 

If the Gospel were an offer of material 
wealth, every individual within sound of 
it would claim its benefits within twenty- 
four hours. If one million dollars, or one 
thousand, were prospered, every one able 
to walk and talk would come and claim 
ft forthwith. If the gift were one thou- 
sand acres of land, or one acre, each per- 
son within hearing would oe the owner of 
land before the setting of the sun. But 
the salvation of the soul, imperishable 
riches and a title to the inheritance in- 
corruptible, is worth infinitely more than 
any eartbly possessions, and yet, in spite 
( 159 ) 



160 The Foursquare Christian. 

ot this, multitudes stay away and think 
they would be self-sacrificing and bidding 
adieu to all they hold dear should they give 
themselves to Christ. 

If the Gospel were an offer of physical 
health, the race would be on its knees for 
it. Even the false and fanciful forms of 
religion that make claims to heal the body 
are sought after by multitudes that do not 
care for healing of the soul. Physical 
health is greatly desired, especially after it 
has been lost, and if the Gospel offered 
healing to the bodies of men as freely as 
it does to their souls, there would be none 
to refuse it. At the best, however, the 
body must soon crumble to the grave while 
the soul shall live on forever. How in- 
finitely important is its welfare! 

If the Gospel were an offer of earthly 
office or position, there would be a mad 
rush to seek and claim its benefits on the 
part of multitudes, many of whom seem 
to care nothing for the infinite honor that 
is offered to them by Christ. Many are the 
expressions used in the Word of God to 
describe the honor that is pressed upon us 
for our acceptance. To be the sons of 
of God is to be princes, and we are even 
called "kings and priests unto God for- 



Faith and Salvation. 161 

ever." Thrones, crowns and kingdoms are 
spoken of as the future possessions of the 
glorified. We are to be heirs of God and 
joint heirs with Christ, and our inheritance 
is to be grand and glorious. That there 
should be a moment's hesitation in seek- 
ing it, on the part of any one, is something 
that bewilders us as we contemplate such 
folly. 

Jesus Christ comes with his offer of 
salvation to men and women, one by one, 
as he came, when on earth, to the sinful 
and distressed. He asks us each one to 
come to him, to repent, to believe, to be 
saved. In his spiritual eyes, sinful and 
worldly and impure and unbelieving souls 
are more distorted and pitiable than the 
physically sick and crippled. If we looked 
with his eyes, we would see sin as more 
distressing and lamentable than any form 
of sickness or deformity. 

This is the day of salvation. Jesus Christ 
is passing by. Thousands and hundreds of 
thousands, all over the world, are turning 
to him and finding him mighty to save. 
Every one who is really saved comes to see 
that he is a miracle of God's grace and 
healing. He wishes to see others saved. 
He prays for them. He pleads with them. 



162 The Foursquare Christian. 

He would bring them to Christ. But 
Jesus himself is seeking for souls with a 
love that will not forget or grow cold. He 
is calling and pleading with men and offer- 
ing them life and salvation. "Will thou be 
made whole?" He offers the best thing in 
life, freely and in the most loving and 
gracious way. Each soul should accept 
him in simple faith, lovingly, trustfully, at 
once and forever. 



PERSEVERANCE. 

As one of the great doctrines of grace 
found in the Word of God and formulated 
in the great systems of truth and doctrine 
we often speak of the "Perseverance of the 
Saints." By this we mean that those who 
are brought savingly into the kingdom of 
God, being accepted foi Christ's sake and 
regenerated and sanctified by his Spirit, 
'can neither totally nor finally fall away 
from the state of grace, but shall certainly 
persevere therein to the end, and be eter- 
nally saved." 

This is a most strong and comforting 
doctrine, and long has been known as one 
of the "Five Points of Calvinism." It adds 
stability to the conception and to the ex- 
perience of Christian life to know that one 
is in such living covenant relations with 
God that there is the certainty of con- 
tinuing safe through time and through 
eternity. He who is thus assured stands 
upon a rock. He can not be moved. All 
that is best has already come into his pos- 
session. Other things may come and go 
but this, the best of all, the knowledge that 
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164 The Foursquare Christian. 

ht is safe in God forever, abides. He may 
be tried and tempted, may have sorrows 
and troubles and struggles, but he is se- 
cure, and his heart abides in peace. 

Such a conception of Christian life is im- 
measurably superior to any thought of it 
which considers as possible that a person 
may be safe to-day and lost to-morrow; 
that one may know of God to-day as cove- 
nant-keeping and to-morrow as forgetful of 
his pledges to his people. He who is sure 
that he is a child of God, and that he will 
so continue whatever may assail him, is 
lifted up above all the temporal and 
passing ills of life He draws his comfort 
not from himself, or his own resolutions 
or feelings or experiences, but from the in- 
finite source of all strength and goodness. 
He is not greatly affected by the passing 
ills and trials of life. He is secure in God, 
as the one who rides on the mighty 
steamer is secure from the winds and 
waves that howl about him. 

But it is not simply a comfort, and su- 
perior to other views in its effect upon the 
mind and heart of the believer. It is the 
truth of God. It is not a mere bit of logic 
and philosophy and ihetoric It is not a 
mere matter of feeling secure and happy. 
It is a part of God's own revelation of his 



Perseverance. 165 

grace toward his people. Christ says of 
his flock; "They shall never perish, neither 
shall any man pluck them out of my hand." 
Of all that Christ has he loses none. Not 
one of his loved ones is to perish. Some go 
cut and go away from him, but it is be- 
cause they are not of him, and thus they 
make it manifest that they are not his. 
When people perish it is because they have 
no interest in Christ and never had. For 
they who are really saved endure to the 
end. They who are really born again have 
the life of God within, and they can not 
fall and perish because they are born of 
God. They are in covenant with God and 
they can not perish, because his promise 
never can be broken. 

God is not only one who seeks and saves, 
but one who keeps. The keeping power of 
God is as precious to us as is his saving 
power. The perseverance of the saints is 
only another word for the perseverance of 
God. We believe in God and we trust him 
If we accept his salvation, wu accept him 
as the one who saves us and who keeps us, 
and because he lives we shall live also. 
The security of the believer is not simply 
in the strength of his renewed will and af- 
fections with which he grasps the hand of 
God in a pure love and a holy resolution, 



166 The Foursquare Christian. 

but in the strength of the Lord who clasps 
his hand and holds him in a mighty, loving 
grasp that will never unfasten to let him 
go. Here is his safety. The Lord is his 
keeper and he keeps him to the end 



IMMORTALITY AND HEAVEN. 

What a marvelous message of life and 
comfort and power comes to us in the fact 
of Christ's resurrection. As we regard it 
with spiritual attention it almost over- 
whelms our senses with its majesty and 
glory. It has a most sublime significancy. 
It rises with august grandeur. The very 
gates of paradise open before us. A breath 
comes to our inner life from the very gar- 
dens of God. 

Does death end all? Is the grave the 
end? Is the coffin to be the narrow room 
to contain all that is to remain? Human 
knowledge can not give assurance as to 
these things. We wish and long for the 
immortal life. We pray and imagine and 
dream. Is it all poetry? Is it all an un- 
founded and imagined hope? Is there any- 
thing beyond the curtain that drops in 
its awful, sable blackness, when comes the 
parting at the hour of death? We have 
seen no one; we have heard no one; we 
have communicated with no one, who has 
gone from us into the shadows of death. 
( 167 ) 



168 The Foursquare Christian. 

So far as our own personal knowledge Is 
concerned, we have none. 

But Life and Immortality are brought to 
light in the Gospel. God has revealed to 
us that of which we could know nothing 
were it not for his Word. He has made 
us sure that there is another life beyond 
this; or, rather, that this life goes right 
on, without interruption, through the 
grave. Death ends only the body. The 
grave becomes its receptacle, but the spirit 
that has found life and salvation through 
faith in Jesus the Savior, goes right on 
and up to be forever with the Lord. This 
assurance is given, with more or less full- 
ness, in nearly every book of the Bible. 
It is found with clearness especially in the 
New Testament. We see Moses and Elias 
coming back to earth to talk with Christ 
of his atoning death. We see the heavens 
opened to the vision of John the beloved 
disciple, and the other world becomes as 
real to us as the one where we dwell. For 
this we take his word as one who witnesses 
to us from God. 

But Jesus Christ rose from the dead here 
on earth and walked for forty days in the 
sight of men. This is actual history. If 
it be not history, there is nothing in all 



Immortality and Heaven. 169 

that is known as history that may be de- 
pended on. If we are not sure that Jesus 
rose from the dead, we are not certain 
that Charlemagne ruled, or that Cromwell 
lived, or that Milton wrote. But we are 
sure. We have the proof of indubitable 
testimony. It is not the record of a vision 
or series of visions. It is the record of 
what men and women by scores and hun- 
dreds saw and heard. Jesus arose and 
lived again among men. By this he proves 
his power over death and the grave. And 
he says that this same power is to be ex- 
erted in favor of those who trust and love 
him. His miracles and his own rising 
from the dead assure us that he is able 
to do for us all that he ever promised, 
and all that we ever long for. 

Christ's rising from the dead is more 
than this. It is the absolute assurance 
that he is able to save us to the uttermost, 
through the justifying grace of his atoning 
death. He died for us to atone for our 
sins. He was not merely a martyr. He 
was not overwhelmed and beaten down in 
discharge of duty or in loving devotion 
to his people. He accomplished our par- 
don. He went down into death and the 

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170 The Foursquare Christian. 

grave for us. His rising from the dead was 
the victorious return from that sacrifice in 
which he baffled forever the enemies of 
our peace. 

He arose from the dead and he proved 
that his death was an atoning sacrifice, and 
not a defeat. He lives, and we have a 
Savior whose death was for our salvation. 
He lives, and we shall live also. The 
grave becomes a gateway into glory. 
Death is vanquished. The victory belongs 
to Christ and his people forever. Heaven 
lies just beyond the curtain. There is 
Christ, and there are the many mansions 
he has gone to prepare, and there his peo- 
ple are being gathered one by one. Thanks 
to God who giveth us the victory! Be- 
cause Christ lives, and where he lives, we 
shall live for evermore. 

The Christian life is one of hope for the 
future. We look forward with glad antici- 
pations. We are freed from all uneasi- 
ness. We are drawing near to the other 
world, not as those who wait for the night 
to come and end the day, but as those who 
see the morning coming to end the night 
Doubt is vanquished. Darkness is ban- 
ished. The eternal morning is coming. 
We are victors, and more than victors, 



Immortality and Heaven. 171 

through him hath gotten the perfect vic- 
tory over everything we dread. 

We are assured in the Word of God that, 
if we are Christ's, we are already living 
the lives of the risen. We do not wait for 
the Judgment Day in order to be vindi- 
cated, for we are already pardoned and 
saved. We do not wait for heaven in order 
to come into peace and assurance. We are 
already risen. We have had spiritual res- 
urrection. We are free from the death of 
sin. We are God's risen children. We love 
him, and trust him, and hope in him, and 
serve him. We breathe the air of a per- 
petual Easter and joy in the abiding glad- 
ness of a life that is for evermore to be hid 
with Christ in God. 



CHRISTIAN SERVICE, 



"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy * * strength." — Mark 

xii. so. 

• • • 

"I delight to do thy will, my 

God" — Psalm xl. 8. 

• # • 

"Be ye doers of the word and not 

hearers only" — James i. 22. 

• * * 

"Whosoever heareth these sayings of 
mine and doeth them, I will liken him 
unto a wise man, which built his house 
upon a rock." — Matt. vii. 24. 



CHRISTIAN MORALITY. 

The true Christian makes it the studious 
effort of his life to do what is right. He 
tries not only to avoid doing what is 
wrong, but to do, positively, the things that 
are right and good. Thus his life is use- 
ful, glorifying God and blessing his fellow 
men. He leads what is known and recog- 
nized not only as a consistent life, but a 
life of Christian service. A contrary course 
would give occasion to the enemies of the 
Lord to blaspheme. The good and consis- 
tent life adorns the doctrine of God our 
Savior. 

The standard by which his life is regu- 
lated is the perfect law of God. The Jew- 
ish standard of weights and measures was 
kept in the Temple. The one perfect law 
of life and morals for our continual guid- 
ance is found in the changeless Word of 
God. If anything in daily life agrees not 
with this Word, it is because there is no 
light in it. God's law is the guide. It tells 
us what is right and good, and what God 
expects and has a right to expect from us. 
(173) 



174 The Foursquare Christian. 

Men have shown themselves, in their sin- 
ful state, not able to keep this law. It has 
condemned them by showing up their im- 
perfections. The sinful life is an immoral 
life. It is unspiritual and is a departure 
from the will of God. 

Gospel grace comes, however, to enable 
men to obey God's will and to do right, and 
where it is accepted and men walk humbly 
before God, they are able, by the divine 
grace, to live in a way that glorifies God. 
This is Christian morality. It trusts in 
Christ. It accepts the indwelling and gra- 
cious guidance of the Holy Spirit. It hon- 
ors and magnifies the law of God. It de- 
lights to do the will of God and lives with 
this as its abiding purpose. 

It will be clearly seen that Christian 
morality is very different from that atti- 
tude so often taken by worldly men when 
they say: "I believe in living a moral life, 
in doing right and in doing good, but I do 
not feel called on to be religious or to be 
associated with the Church." This is a re- 
jection of the counsel and commandments 
of God. It is self-righteousness. The 
standard set up by God is abandoned, a 
human rule of life is accepted, and there 
is no certainty as to what such a person 



Christian Morality. 175 

may call right or wrong at any time, nor 
is there any assurance that he will do even 
what he thinks to be right. In order to a 
good life we need to accept God's inflexible 
standard; we need a nature made to be in 
harmony with God by regeneration, and we 
need the continual constraining grace of 
God in our hearts. Even at the best God's 
people do not lead perfect lives. In an ex- 
ceedingly dangerous condition, then, is the 
one who does not, and will not, accept 
God's helping hand. 

It is not claimed that the every-day life 
of every irreligious man is grossly im- 
moral, nor that every professed Christian 
lives in perfect consistency, unblemished 
by any imperfections or deviations from 
the standard laid down in God's law. But 
we are bound to acknowledge, according to 
the inspired teaching of the apostle, that 
those persons are very far astray who go 
about to establish their own righteousness, 
and who have not submitted themselves to 
the righteousness of God. The attainments 
of the truest and purest Christian are in 
his own estimation only as "filthy rags" 
compared with "the robe of Christ's right- 
eousness" in which he seeks to be arrayed, 
but, if this is so, the best morality of the 



176 The Foursquare Christian. 

Christless soul must be worse than this in 
the clear vision of God. 

The true Christian will often read and 
will be guided by the spirit that is ex- 
pressed so clearly in the epistle of James. 
He will not be satisfied with a Christian 
Experience, however pleasing, unless he is 
led into the works which prove practically 
that he is a child of God. He will not rest 
on the fact that he has accepted the atti- 
tude of Christian Worship in reference to 
God in his Church and holy ordinances un- 
less he is also disposed to show the fruits 
of righteousness in his life. He will not 
pride himself upon the orthodoxy of his 
Christian Faith unless he is willing to have 
also an orthodoxy of life and Christian 
Service, without which the other, being 
alone, is dead. But he will strive, by the 
grace of God, for that consistent obedience 
or morality which will manifest that he 
loves God with heart, soul, mind and 
strength, in the ways of experience, wor- 
ship, faith and service. Thus will he live 
as a Christian, not as a worldling; not a 
one-sided life, but the life of the four- 
square Christian. 



GLORIFYING GOD. 

In order to glorify God one must be and 
must do what God designs and desires. Hs 
must carry out God's purpose in his crea- 
tion. He must do what God intends him 
to do. Thus a telescope by means of which 
the astronomer sees the heavenly bodies 
adds glory to the maker of the instrument. 
The elegant building adds glory to the 
architect and builder. No one may add 
glory to God, but each one may manifest 
some of the glory that is his and that he 
displays in all his works of creation and 
grace. 

A sinner is a sinner all the time, until 
hp is saved. If he is not saved, he remains 
a sinner, and while he so remains he is a 
sinner while he is asleep and while he i3 
awake, while he speaks and while he is 
silent, while he plays and while he works. 
A thief may not be stealing all the time, 
but he is a thief all the time. A liar may 
not lie every minute, but be is a liar all 
the time. A sinner may not be doing 
wicked things every minute, but he is a 
sinner all the time. It is in this sense 
(177) 



178 The Foursquare Christian. 

that the Bible says that the plowing of the 
wicked is sin. 

So, on the other hand, and in a corre- 
spondingly high and important sense, a 
true Christian is a child of God all the time, 
at night and by day, at home and abroad, 
at church and in place of week-day work 
and duty. At all times and in all places 
he is God's child. He may not be wor- 
shiping all the time. It is impossible for 
him to pray all the time, or to read the 
Bible or even to think of God and eternal 
things all the time, but he is continuously 
a child of God, and at every moment and 
in every place he may and should glorify 
God. 

Every Christian should make it the rule 
of his life to do everything he does in just 
the way that God wishes him to do it. In 
this way he is himself kept in a conscien- 
tious and consecrated line of life, and he 
is showing to those around him how God 
expects life to be lived. The flower that 
blooms in its fragrant beauty reveals to 
us some of God's beautiful thoughts and is 
to us a call to a true and beautiful life. 

We must never permit ourselves to think 
that some of our duties are religious and 
some of them secular. If we are God's 
children, they are all religious. They may 



Glorifying God. 179 

not all be worship or prayer, but they are 
all religious if we are trying to glorify God 
in both our bodies and our spirits. If we 
are mere worldlings, then everything we 
do is secular. We may do some very nice 
and pleasant and elegant things, but there 
is not one of them in which we are simply 
and lovingly trying to please God. And 
this is essential. It is the mark of a Chris- 
tian. 

All honest men are not Christians, but 
all Christian men are honest. All truth- 
ful men are not Christians, but all Chris- 
tian men are truthful, and so in the same 
way they are pure and kind and upright 
and in possession of the graces without 
which it is not possible to see and serve 
God. If all men were true-hearted and 
sincere followers of Jesus Christ, all the 
evil things would die out of the world. 
Wars would cease. Intemperance would be 
no more. There would be no dishonesty in 
business. Men would work industriously 
and joyously. Overreaching and fraud 
would never be seen. 

It is our duty in this world not simply 
to make money, winning wealth and fame 
and power, for we may fulfill the great ends 
of life with only a small portion of Ihese. 
But it is our duty to serve God, to obey 



180 The Foursquare Christian. 

his laws, to enter his kingdom, to live for 
the highest and holiest ends, and to win 
those around us to the life of salvation. 

If we know our duty and do it not, we 
shall make a terrible failure of life. The 
one who is invited to an interest in Christ 
but fails to accept him, makes himself an 
eternal castaway. The one who, being 
saved, does not do his whole duty in trying 
to save others, is guilty of a great wrong, 
and he will have a terrible charge to meet 
when he stands before the bar of God. 

A man was proven guilty of manslaughter 
not long ago in a court and was sentenced 
to severe punishment. What had he done? 
He had stood and had seen a fellow-man 
drown when he might have saved his life. 
Tie allowed him to perish, within personal 
sight and reach. The man knew he could 
have saved him had he tried. His con- 
science, unless it was seared, must have 
reproved him all the rest of his life. 

We are saved in order to save others. 
The engineer is on the engine of the ex- 
press train not simply that he may have a 
ride from one city to another, but that he 
may conduct the whole company of pas- 
sengers safely to their destination. A phy- 
sician does not simply try to preserve his 
own health, but he is depended on by the 



Glorifying God. 181 

whole community to save them from the 
power of disease, and he will not run even 
when the disease is a contagious fever. If 
we are Christians, we must bring others 
to a knowledge and acceptance of Christ. 

Many have seen a picture of a woman in 
a stormy sea clinging to a cross by means 
of which she is saved from the waves. But 
there is another picture, which we all like 
better, of a woman saved from drowning 
because she holds to a cross with one hand 
w r hile, with the other hand, she holds an- 
other woman and saves her. This is the 
way we should all strive to live. We are 
saved in order to save others. While the 
world is full of those who are perishing 
we shall be held responsible if we do not 
what we can to rescue them. 

Let us show by the very s-pirit and man- 
ner we carry into our daily duties that we 
are animated by the spirit that is from 
above, and in all honesty and gentleness 
and reasonableness glorify our Father who 
is in heaven. 



FAITH AND PRACTICE. 

We heard, not long ago, a very ill-ad- 
\jsed remark frcm a speaker who thought 
he was making a practical and pious ut- 
terance. He said: "I love religion and 
flowers, but I detest botaoy and theology." 
The fact is that ignorance never yet added 
to one's capacity for real enjoyment. He 
might as well have said: "I love music, but 
I do not know one tune from another; J 
love paintings, but I can not tell colors 
apart; I love books, but I absolutely hate 
the drudgery of reading them. ,, He who 
rtally loves flowers will love them all the 
more as he comes to understand the sym- 
metry of their construction and the laws 
for their classification, entering thereby 
into sympathy with their divine Creator in 
his work as the artistic source and or- 
ganizer of beauty. He who is really re- 
ligious may be all the more so as he 
studies the systematic and well-ordered 
tody of truth placed in the Word of God 
under the inspiring direction of the Holy 
Spirit. God who made the flowers loves 
them better than any human being does, 
(182) 



Faith and Practice. 183 

and he who inspired the Scriptures is the 
One who is perfectly holy and happy in all 
his infinite life. 

The true child of God is the only one 
who lives or who can live the Christian 
life. Only the fig tree produces figs. No 
other tree does or can produce them, but 
by the very law of its being it can and 
must. Christian faith lies at the very 
heart and source of Christian practice. As 
a man thinketh in his heart so is he. From 
the secret sources of his inmost life pro- 
ceeds its outward expression in words and 
actions. The nature of the tree unfolds 
itself in foliage, blossom and fruit, and the 
law of its life will govern all that it pro- 
duces. So the true Christian will show 
that he is controlled and dominated by the 
law of the Spirit of Life. 

There may be an external life which is 
artificial, as a tree may be decked out with 
artificial blossoms. The tree that is so 
decorated is readily detected by all except 
the very inexperienced. The man whose 
life is that of merely outward Christian 
form may have a fair appearance, but he 
can not deceive <*od who knows the heart. 
Men may sometimes do very well because 
they have been raised well and surrounded 
by good influences, but unless one has 



184 The Foursquare Christian. 

within his own heart the vital principle of 
a regenerated life the good that he has in- 
herited or been taught will become a spent 
force, like a cannon ball that loses its mo- 
mentum after it has oeen started by a 
force not its own. 

The way to bring the whole world up to 
the plane of true Christian living is to 
bring it to an acceptance of the Gospel of 
Christ. There will never come a time 
when the life of the world will be right 
until it comes to know and believe and 
obey Jesus Christ. Make the tree good in 
order that its fruit may be good. Make 
the world's faith right and its life will be 
right. To this end Christian missionaries 
are going into all lands carrying the 
message of life througii the divine Re- 
deemer. The lands where there is the best 
l:ke are those in which there is most ac- 
ceptance of Christ. The worst lands, and 
the most dangerous to life and property, 
are those in which there is the least of the 
Gospel. 

The stream can never rise higher than its 
fountain. No life can be Christ-like un- 
less the love and life of Christ are in the 
heart. We must preach the Gospel if we 
would make use of the agency devised by 
God for man's salvation. We must accept 



Faith and Practice, 185 

Christ as our own Savior if we would be 
saved, and unless we are saved we can not 
live the life of the children of God. 

The law of cause and effeet is in force 
not more in the physical world than in 
the spiritual world. If we have only the 
life of the flesh in our souls, we shall live 
after the flesh, but if we have the God- 
given and new-born life of the soul within 
us, we shall be able to live as those who 
love and follow after the things that are 
above 



(13) 



EASY TO DO RIGHT. 

When Christ tells us that his yoke is 
easy and his burden is light, he means 
that it is easy to do right. A good many 
people do not think it is. They think, and 
say, that it is a terribly difficult thing to 
do what one ought to do. They think it 
very trying to have to do one's duty. Tbey 
think sin is very alluring and righteousness 
very severe. Whenever people talk in this 
way, however, they are contradicting 
Christ, and are showing that they have 
neither the wisdom nor the knowledge to 
make them safe guides or associates. 

If one is really sensible and well-inform- 
ed, he knows it is a great deal easier, in 
the long run, to do right and secure the 
results, than to do wrong and reap the con- 
sequences. "Oh," says some one, "per- 
haps it is if you include all the future con- 
sequences." Well, and why should we not 
include all the future consequences when 
we consider such a matter? Is it not wise 
and prudent? Do not all wise and prudent 
people do so? Of course they do. So, we 
( 186 ) 



Easy to Do Right. 187 

say, as sensible people always have and 
will, that it is much easier to do right than 
it is to do wrong. 

It is easier and better for a boy to be 
studious and industrious in his boyhood 
than it is to be lazy and trifling. The days 
and years of boyhood will soon be gone. 
He who has formed correct habits, and who 
has come, through discipline and training, 
into the days of a competent and useful 
life, will be an honored and successful 
man. Far easier, taking a whole life- 
time into consideration, is it to form in- 
dustrious habits than to be self-indulgent 
and slothful in youth. 

It is easier and better for any man to be 
honest and truthful and upright and pure, 
than to become involved in the meshes of 
sin and vice and crime. Oh, the shame 
and sorrow and confusion that come to 
those who violate the plain laws of God. 
The forger thinks it easy to get money by 
the mere writing of another man's name, 
but the detection and disgrace and punish- 
ment that follow make a crushing load. 
The robber and the gambler find it easy to 
pick up the property of some victim, but 
it would be a thousand fold easier to earn it 



188 The Foursquare Christian. 

than to meet with the fate of the thief, 
which will come upon them. 

Sin is the worst folly of which a rational 
beiDg can he guilty. He who violates the 
laws which have been made by God and 
by human society, is not only going counter 
to the best judgment in the universe, but 
is making an enemy out of mighty forces 
that are pledged to the enforcement of the 
laws that have been made. A man may 
disregard the law of gravitation and leap 
from a precipice, but he will suffer without 
fail. He may disregard the laws as to 
poison, but the poison will grapple with 
him and demand his life. He may set at 
naught the laws as to purity and goodness, 
but, if he does he will go down to moral 
and physical putrescence. 

Saul was a mighty man, but God was 
Almighty, and when Saul fell into the fatal 
folly of matching himself with God, In dis- 
obedience, he had to lament: "I hnve 
played the fool and erred exceedingly." 
David was a great king, but when he al- 
lowed himself to fall into a pit of sin one 
day, the rebuke he received, and the con- 
sequent shame and sorrow, made him real- 
ize that the way of the transgressor was 
not easy, but exceedingly hard. It may 



Easy to Do Right. 189 

seem to be easy, at the time, to evade re- 
sponsibility, to shirk duty, to fail of the 
truth, and to deny one's Lord, but the end 
thereof is death, and only the ways of duty 
and obedience and true wisdom are ways 
of enduring pleasantness and paths of abid- 
ing peace. 

It is the end that crowns the work. The 
morsel that is sweet to the taste, but that 
brings bitterness and death, were better 
left untasted. The loaf that is plain and 
coarse may build up fiber and give health 
and strength. Obedience, yoke-bearing 
and burden-carrying for Christ may not 
seem the easiest at the time, but, unless we 
are guilty of incomparable felly, we shall 
have respect to the recompense of the re- 
ward. 3t is only when we are entirely lack- 
ing Christian grace and Christian sense 
that we are so near-sighted that we can not 
even think of looking toward the end of 
the way that stretches out before us. 

It is easy to be a Christian. It is the 
only really easy life that was ever devised, 
and it has been devised by the infinite wis- 
dom and love and grace, and pressed upon 
us. He who lives as a Christian will, in 
this present life, miss a little hilarity and 
boisterous mirth and intoxicating revelry 



190 The Foursquare Christian. 

and selfish ease and self-indulgence. But 
he will miss many a heartache and many a 
pang and many a degradation. And he is 
on the way to the eternal peace and joy 
and glory. He will come, in due time, to 
the crown and the throne and the home of 
fadeless beauty. "Facilis est descensus 
Averni." It has long been admitted that 
it is easy to drop into perdition, but it is 
easier to walk in the upward way, even 
though at first strait and narrow, for at 
the last it leads over the Delectable Moun- 
tains to the gates of pearl, and widens out 
Into the golden streets of the Celestial City. 



A PROSPEROUS SOUL. 

It is a little strange that people so gen- 
erally emphasize the body above the soul. 
When we meet one another we inquire as 
to one another's health, and we generally 
assume that it is the body about which 
we ask. "How do you do?" "Oh, I am 
very well except for a cold and a head- 
ache." Has the soul a cold and a head- 
ache, or do I assume, and is it the truth, 
that my body, and not my soul, is in- 
quired about? Usually our inquiries and 
answers are all about the body, and a 
solicitous word about the soul would 
awaken embarrassment and some sort of 
stammering and blushing reply. 

He was a rather peculiar man who said: 
"No, sir; I do not have a soul." "What 
do you mean? I had no idea that you 
were a materialist." "I am not a mate- 
rialist. Far from it. But I do not have a 
soul. I prefer to say that I have a body. 
I am a soul. For the present I inhabit this 
body, but I am to leave it after a time." 
He was peculiar, but he had the truth. 
(191) 



192 The Foursquare Christian. 

It is a pity that we are not, all of us, more 
peculiar in this same direction. If so, we 
should think more of the health and 
strength and well-being of the soul than 
we do, and would not estimate the body 
to be important out of all true proportion. 

We are often led to wish, in regard to 
a great many people, that their souls might 
have some of the attention they give to 
their bodies, and that they might have 
spiritual life and vigor akin to the physi- 
cal vitality and health they possess. We 
think it would be a great blessing if their 
souls could prosper as well as their bodies 
do. It seems, in the case of most people, 
that they think more and care more for 
body than for soul. Of one man we read, 
in the Third Epistle of John, a different 
story. John writes that he wishes the body 
of the beloved Gaius might prosper even 
as his soul prospered. He was, probably, 
an invalid or temporarily ill, but it is cer- 
tain that, whatever the condition of his 
body, his soul was a prosperous and well- 
conditioned soul. 

When one's body is well, there is a 
healthful appetite; good food is eaten with 
relish, digested and assimilated. So when 
a soul is in health, it has a longing for 



A Prosperous Soul. 193 

spiritual food. It feeds on Christ, the 
living Bread of Life. It loves the written 
Word and feeds upon the truth as found 
in the Holy Scriptures. God's Word is 
found and eaten, and is found to be more 
than one's necessary food. Religious truth 
is relished. The teaching and preaching 
of God's Word is a delight. He who is in 
good condition spiritually, so as to have 
soul prosperity, loves to feed upon divine 
truth, and is built up and strengthened by 
means of it. 

Again, when one's body is well, the lungs 
draw in the air with a healthful vigor, and 
are built up by it. Few of us breathe in 
enough of the vital air. So when a soul is 
well, it breathes in the very life and 
Spirit of God in prayer. No one can be a 
Christian who does not pray. He must 
pray, in order to live, as one must breathe 
in order to have physical life. The more 
we study into the matter, the more won- 
derfully striking seems the analogy be- 
tween breathing and prayer. The student 
of language may discuss the etymological 
relation between the words for spirit and 
for air. If we are in the Spirit, we shall 
feel ourselves to be in a very atmosphere 
of prayer. 



194 The Foursquare Christian, 

Again, when one's body is well, it is 
active, and delights in exercise and activ- 
ity. It can have no health without it. 
There is flabbiness and weakness and dis- 
ease without exercise. So when a soul is 
in health, it is ready to engage in God's 
service. It is obedient. It is ready to do 
God's will. It seeks ways in which it may 
work for God and his cause. A selfish, 
inactive, useless Christian is an absolute 
anomaly. The follower of Christ lives not 
to himself, but to him who died for him 
and rose again. The soul that prospers, 
and is well, is awake and active in the life 
and service of Jesus Christ. 

Again, when one's body is well, there is 
sensitiveness as to pain. The paralyzed, 
stupefied, fever-burned body is in a dan- 
gerous condition and is almost uncon- 
scious of pain. So the soul that is well 
is sensitive in conscience as to sin. The 
lapse into sin causes it pain. This indi- 
cates health. While health Is buoyant and 
happy and joyous and free from suffering, 
for the most part, anything that attacks 
the well-being of the body causes pain, 
so that pain is a salutary warning. So 
spiritual life is joy and peace and glad- 
ness, while there is sensitiveness as to 



A Prosperous Soul. 195 

wrong-doing and pain of conscience when 
sin has been committed. Alas for the con- 
dition of those who have no interest in 
religious things, and who do not care for 
sin or for salvation. 

It is a great thing to be well and buoy- 
ant in health. Some have this only in 
their bodies. Some have it in their souls, 
rather, as in the case of the beloved Gaius. 
It is a blessed thing if the soul gains the 
ascendency, and, even while the outward 
man perishes, the inward man is renewed 
day by day. There is a life where there 
shall be no pain either of soul or body, 
and a home in which both body and soul 
shall know eternal buoyancy and gladness 
in the holy presence of God. • 



THINGS AND HANDS. 

Holy aspiration is one part of religious 
life. The devotional spirit is an important 
element in the life of a true child of God. 
Piety may be likened to wings, by means of 
which one rises into the high realms of 
life. In prayer and communion with God 
one soars above the ordinary levels of 
earthly existence. It is an experience which 
is to be sought after, and which must be 
possessed by all who know anything of 
real spirituality. Life must not be lived 
on the low levels. We must be able to 
rise above material conditions, We are 
more than physical and intellectual. We 
must not be content to eat and to drink and 
to die. There are things that are more 
enduring and more to be desired than those 
that we see and hear and touch with our 
physical senses. The angels are represented 
as having wings, and by this we have im- 
pressed upon us the fact of their higher 
and more spiritual life in the presence and 
service of God. 

In the wonderful vision recorded by 
(196) 



Wings and Hands. 197 

Ezekiel we find the account of a glorious 
being which was mysterious and yet 
strangely gracious and impressive in its 
appearance. Its attributes were intelligence 
and spirituality and holiness and devotion 
to God, with courage and steadfastness in 
his service. It had the faces of an eagle, 
a cherub, a lion, and a man. It was wise 
and holy and strong and noble. It was full 
of activity and wisdom. It was gloriously en- 
swathed in a cloud of brightness and mys- 
tery, and wonderfully supplied with wings. 
It represented the high and holy life of 
aspiration and devotion. But underneath 
the wings were seen the hands of a man. 
Hands are for work, and they typify 
practical service. However devotional and 
aspiring the spiritual life may be, the child 
of God finds himself here on earth in con- 
ditions that call for hard and faithful work. 
He must work and watch as well as pray. 
There are times when he may close the 
door of his closet while he prays within, 
but there are other times when be must 
close it while he works without It is im- 
possible to remain long on the Mount of 
Transfiguration. There are suffering ones 
down on the plain, who are to be healed. 
Holy visions may be seen on the mountain 



198 The Foursquare Christian. 

top, but there are impure devils to be cast 
out at the foot of the mountain. On wings 
of faith we rise to holy communion with 
Christ and his holy ones, but with the 
hands of consecrated service we take hold 
of our duty and do it in loving obedience. 
Every true Christian has the wings of 
spirituality, but he has also the hands of 
service. Hands signify work, and we must 
be active and diligent in the Lord's cause 
if we shall make our lives tell for good. 
It takes work to make a church successful. 
We can not fold our hands and get our 
work done. We can not expect to be car- 
ried to the skies on flowery beds of ease. 
Lazy people make very poor Christians. 
An active man, such as Paul, is apt to be 
a useful Christian after he is converted. 
The people built the wall of Jerusalem in 
Nehemiah's day, for they had a mind to 
work, but where people are not so disposed 
they will never build up the church. Let 
the wings carry one up Into God's presence, 
but let the hands do God's work here on 
earth. 

And hands are for giving. To be sure 
this is a very important department of 
working. We are to work ,and are to de- 
vote the first fruits of all our increase to 



Wings and Hands. 199 

the Lord's cause. A giving church is a 
living, working church. A Christian who 
is ready and willing to give in such meas- 
ure as to honor God is a very good type of 
a working Christian, and he will usually 
be found working in other lines as diligent- 
ly and lovingly as he is in the important 
work of filling the Lord's treasury. The 
piety which will not give is spurious. The 
man who sings so vigorously that he does 
not notice the contribution box as it passes, 
has a religion that is vain. 

And hands are for greeting. We touch 
right hands to show that we are friends 
and not enemies. When we extend the 
open right hand, it is to show that we have 
no deadly weapon in it. This is the spirit 
in which Christian people must strive to 
win the world for Christ. We are to invite 
them and persuade them to come to him. 
We are to greet them in the spirit of love, 
and with the open hand grasp them and 
bring them into the church of Christ. After 
all our praying we are to go out into the 
world with open hands, and try to bring 
people to the feast that Christ has prepared. 

Christian life has its two sides. Each is 
Important. Each is essential. We must 
pray and we must work. We must use 



200 The Foursquare Christian. 

hands and we must use wings. Our Lord 
did not spend all his time on the mountain 
tops in prayer, but went about doing good. 
So the child of God must use, in practical 
service, the strength which comes in the 
hours of devotion. He will pray most and 
best who has most work to do for God and 
his feiiowmen, <md he who longs to be 
spiritually useful will seek in prayer to be 
spiritually strong. 



WATCHMEN ON THE TOWERS. 

A very impressive illustration is used 
by the prophet Ezekiel to emphasize the 
fact that those who are in places of re- 
sponsibility will be held to an account for 
their faithfulness, or the lack of it. In the 
hands of the prophet this illustration, or 
parable, is very startling, as a direct mes- 
sage from God to his people to arouse them 
to carefulness in doing their whole duty. 

We see a watchman on the tower of a 
city. He scans the horizon in all directions 
for possible danger. He has a trumpet in 
his hand. Enemies are liable to come 
stealing into the neighborhood of the city 
to surprise those who are out in the fields, 
or outside the walls of the city for any 
purpose. The lives of these people are 
really in the hands of the watchman. If 
an enemy approaches, the watchman must 
see him, and must give notice to those 
who are exposed, so that they may flee into 
the city, within the protection of its walls. 
The watchman must bear the blame if any 
are surprised and slain. If any are warned, 

(14) LC201) 



202 The Foursquare Christian. 

however, and do not flee after being 
warned, they must bear the blame of their 
own death. 

This has a spiritual application to all 
times, and to all lands. Sin abounds in 
the world. No one is safe from its ap- 
proaches and surprises. There are a great 
many, especially the young, who are very 
inexperienced and in very great danger. 
They need the help and counsel and warn- 
ing of those who can come to them in the 
name and love of the Lord, and plead with 
them to flee from danger, repent of sin, be- 
lieve in Jesus Christ, love and follow him 
through life, and know the real and full 
meaning of salvation. There is safety 
just at hand for them, if they will flee for 
refuge to Christ. There is death for them 
if they stay away from his love and grace. 

The minister is such a watchman. He 
is in a place of great responsibility. It is 
his duty to warn men and women of their 
danger, to point out to them the certainty 
of death, so long as they remain in sin, 
and to set before them the way of life, so 
that th9y will come to Christ and be saved. 
It is a terrible thing for one to be in the 
ministry and be unfaithful to his trust 
There should be the plain preaching of the 



Watchmen on the Towers. 203 

solemn warnings of the Gospel. The full 
round of truth must be preached. There 
must be no unfaithful silences. There 
must be the setting forth of all the great 
truths of the Cross. There must be per- 
sonal dealing with souls. There must be 
no fear of man. There must be tactful and 
loving words, too, so that the truth may 
be effective if possible. It is a terrible 
thing for one to be a minister and to let 
souls perish for lack of faithfulness. How 
many ministers will have blood on their 
garments? No one may know. Each one 
should work and pray that he may be faith- 
ful. 

But elders and other church officers, Sab 
bath-school superintendents and teachers, 
are likewise watchmen who must be on 
their guard lest they let souls perish. 
Each of these persons has great responsi- 
bility. There is great danger to the one 
who ©lis one of them carelessly and un- 
worthily. But there is equal guilt to the 
one who will not take such a place be- 
cause he wishes to evade responsibility. 
There are those around us who must be 
saved, or they will perish. Some must be 
on the watch towers. Refusal to go there 
is negligence and cowardice that God will 



204 The Foursquare Christian. 

rebuke. The elder and the Sabbath-school 
teacher have great opportunities. Those 
who are efficient and faithful have a great 
reward, here and hereafter. 

But each parent is a watchman, and is 
set especially to watch for his or her own 
children. No parent should delegate this 
duty to minister or Sabbath-school teacher. 
What can any parent be about who does not 
use every possible effort to win for Christ 
the souls given to him or her by the Lord? 
There is nothing on earth worth thinking 
of by the side of the salvation of the souls 
of the children. Some persons give them- 
selves to business, neglect God and his 
service, and let their children go to ruin 
unwarned and unentreated by themselves. 
There is blood on the hands of many par- 
ents to-da3% we are sorely afraid. 

But every church member is a watchman 
who ought to be warning others and bring- 
ing them to Christ To know enough to be 
a member of the church is to know enough 
to save others, and he who will not do what 
he can do, in this sinful world, is in a posi- 
tion in which he is incurring the sore dis- 
pleasure of the Almighty. 

But there is a measureless responsibility 
with those who are not even members of 



Watchmen on the Towers. 205 

the church. They ought to serve God, even 
if they do not. No one absolves himself 
from responsibility by refusing to accept 
it. Some people who are living in this 
world without any seeming care or thought 
as to themselves or others, will, some day, 
come to a great surprise when they awaken 
to the realization that they have thrown 
away themselves and others whom they 
ought to have guided into life. Every one 
who lives is in a place of responsibility, 
and God will hold him to a strict account. 



THE LORD'S MONEY. 

It takes money to carry on the work of 
the Church, but there is nothing in the 
world so worthy of being carried on. As 
this is the supreme cause in the world, 
being the cause of Christ, the support of it 
is necessarily the supreme use of money. 
All other causes, important and necessary 
though they be, are of secondary impor- 
tance. Many other causes must not be neg- 
lected, but this must be supported. It is 
the cause of God. It must never be over- 
looked. 

When God projected the cause of his 
church he knew that it would take money 
to carry it on as it would for the home and 
for the civil government among men. 
Homes are provided for by making parents 
responsible; governments are provided for 
by taxing the citizens, and the Church is 
to be supported by the people paying into 
its treasury a sufficient amount to maintain 
its life and work. God gave specific di- 
rections as to this, and we do well to take 
heed to and to follow his instructions. 

It is no more giving when we contribute 
(206) 



The Lord's Money. 207 

our just proportion to the support of the 
Church than it is giving when we pay our 
taxes or when we pay the proper expenses 
of our homes and families. It is our right- 
ful due, and we should neither excuse our- 
selves from its performance nor take un- 
due credit to ourselves for its performance. 
There should be no hesitancy in paying 
into the Lord's treasury aJl that he asks 
for and all that is needed The Church 
should be sustained by the simple and 
prompt payment of all those who receive 
its benefits. We are to learn to pay rather 
than to resort to questionable methods of 
raising money. 

We should be very careful how we call 
the soliciting of money for the Lord's use 
by the belittling term of "begging " and yet 
we sometimes hear this done. It is our 
duty to do what the Lord directs us in this 
as in all ether matters, and no call to duty 
is to be either evaded or stigmatized. It 
is an honor to be permitted to help carry 
on the spiritual work of the Church here 
on earth. God might work miracles and 
sustain the Church without money, just as 
he might send angels to preach and to do 
Uie other work of the Church instead of 



208 The Foursquare Christian. 

men. But he does neither one. He ex- 
pects his people to pay ami to work. The 
money that is needed is in the hands of 
God's people, just as they are endowed with 
strength and talents of speech. It is God's 
money. We are only stewards of all our 
talents and possessions. We are to use, at 
the Lord's call, all we are and all we have. 
The New Testament rule as laid down 
very plainly is that we are to give as God 
has prospered us. This is the plain apos- 
tolic direction. But in what proportion? One 
may make it his rule to give the one-tenth 
of his income, another the one-hundredth, 
and another the one-thousandth, and, as 
the Lord prospers them, they will have 
more or less to give. It is clear that there 
must be something else as a rule to define 
the duty, lor, by itself, there is here no rule 
for educating covetousness out of the heart. 
God is exact as to the amount of time that 
is to be devoted to the sacred purposes, and 
it hurts some people very greatly to use 
one-seventh of all the Jays for spiritual 
uses. God does not tell us to set apart as 
much time as we think W3 can spare. Tho 
same principle is apparent in the use of 
money. God asks the tithe, and, according 



The Lord's Money. 209 

as he prospers us, this will amount to more 
or less. 

When the Jewish nation was in the 
height of its prosperity, ani in the full tide 
of its spiritual tide, we find them paying 
the tithe into the Lord's treasury, and 
when they were declining we find them 
neglecting this duty and being upbraided 
for it. The Roman Catholics expect this 
much from their people. The Mormons 
demand this all the time. If these bodies 
thrive temporally as they do under this 
provision, how much more is the Church 
of the pure evangel worthy of this, and 
how much more ready should we be to pay 
it for the sake of Christ! 

The law of the tithe is like the law of 
the Sabbath in that it has never been abro- 
gated, and that it is held very loosely by 
many, and utterly scouted by many more. 
Yet those who profess to be guided by 
Cod's Word should be very careful how 
they treat lightly any of God's directions. 
Before the Jewish nation was in existence, 
the announcement was made that the 
tithe is the Lord's. The Jewish nation, 
living under the directly divine govern- 
ment, incorporated this principle into their 



210 The Foursquare Christian. 

national law and life, and paid the tithe 
into the Lord's treasury. If Christian peo- 
ple should all do this, there would be no 
limit to the success that might attend their 
efforts to send the Gospel through all the 
earth. 



MISSIONS. 

There are a great many arguments 
against the work of foreign missions whicl? 
are sufficiently satisfactory to the unspir- 
itually minded to justify them in their 
course of doing nothing to give the Gospel 
to the heathen world. Of course, their spir- 
itual inertia or lack of interest would be 
sufficient to keep them from doing any- 
thing, but, in order to show that their op- 
position is founded on reason, there is a 
great array of argument against the very 
thing which the Lord Jesus Christ com- 
missioned his disciples to undertake and 
perform. 

It is sometimes said that foreign missions 
do not succeed; that the work is simply 
emotional and visionary, and that nothing 
real and lasting is accomplished. In an- 
swer to this we may simply point to Eng- 
land and America and to other Christian 
lands, in every one of which heathenism 
would be prevalent and undisturbed had 
not the religion of Christ been carried to 
these countries and people in early days by 
those who went out, in obedience to the 
(211) 



212 The Foursquare Christian. 

Lord, to carry the Gospel to every creature. 
If it had not been for foreign missions 
our ancestors would have continued in their 
heathen life, and we, their children, would 
still be walking in their unhappy footsteps. 
England and America are proofs that for- 
eign missions succeed. 

But it is sometimes said again that the 
success is only partial, and not such as to 
justify us in going to the great trouble and 
expense of sending missionaries to lands 
that are intrenched in their old heathen 
faiths. These people say that, with all our 
church life and influence and machinery, 
there are millions in this country that hold 
out against the Gospel, and that it is not 
to be expected that the Gospel will succeed 
in lands where there are only a few mis- 
sionaries. This argument proves entirely 
too much. If there are people in this land 
who held out against Christ, in despite of 
all they see and know, they are so hard- 
hearted that there is little reason for wast- 
ing time with them. The fact is that heathen 
people, in proportion to their advantages, 
are turning to Christ more rapidly than 
people in Christian lands. Our foreign mis- 
sionaries receive far more persons into the 
church on profession of faith in Christ than 



Missions. 213 



dc our ministers at home. This is a fact. 
There is no doubt about it. All church re- 
ports show it. Missions do succeed, and 
they are succeeding more and more. 

We have in our own country at present 
at least 29,000,000 members of the various 
churches. The census of 1900. more than 
five years ago, gave nearly 28,000,000. Of 
these, about 20,000,000 are communicants in 
our Protestant lurches, with a much 
larger Protestant population not embraced 
in the number, and about 9,000,000 are the 
Roman Catholic population. There are at 
least 60,000,000 of people who are Protest- 
ant in their belief and adherence. They 
give assent, to the Gospel. Their lives are 
more or less influenced by it. They are 
governed by its practical principles and 
live in accordance with its general moral 
precepts. In our nation we may safely say 
that we have a community of at least sev- 
enty millions whose lives are molded very 
largely by the power of the Gospel, and we 
would not be willing to say about the few 
remaining millions that they disbelieve and 
hate God. Practically this is a Christian 
land, although there is much sin and dis- 
loyalty to God and rejection of the saving 
influences of Christ and his Holy Spirit. 



214 The Foursquare Christian, 

The Gospel has done so much for us in 
making life and property safe and secure, 
that we should be greatly anxious to pass 
along its benefits and privileges to others 
who are less favored. If there is any way 
of bringing other lands to enjoy as much 
as we do, we should be sufficently unselfish 
to do what we can for them. There is such 
a way, and that way is foreign missions. 

But again, it is said that the most ef- 
fective way to induce heathen people to 
accept our religion would be to show them 
what it can do for us at home, and that, 
consequently, we should keep all our forces 
at work here until our people are entirely 
converted, every evil thing eliminated, and 
we an absolutely perfect people, showing 
up as a perfect example, and stirring up all 
the world to accept our religion and become 
like us. But this is not the divine plan. 
We have in Christ the perfect example to 
point the world to. If we remain at home 
and keep all our religion at home, we shall 
simply exhibit ourselves as a colossal ex- 
pression of selfishness. If we let the heath- 
en people perish without the Gospel, while 
we parade ourselves before their eyes, they 
will not lovingly cry out for our faith and 
our Savior, but they will hate us for our 



Missions. 215 



selfishness and will accuse us to God for 
our betrayal of our sacred trust. Only as 
we give them the story of the cross are we 
setting them an example that shall win 
them to a saved life. 

Christ's plan is the best plan. Being the 
best plan, we are tp know no other. The 
Gospel is the secret of America's greatness. 
If every soul in America would accept 
Christ, our country would be far greater. 
If we withhold the Gospel from the world, 
we shall shrink and shrivel in pettiness and 
selfishness and disloyalty to Christ. It is 
not simply a question as to what is to be- 
come of the heathen world if we withhold 
the Gospel, but what is to become of our- 
selves if we are so unkind and unfeeling 
as to have no regard to the need of those 
who are perishing. If we have the Spirit 
of Christ, we will do what lies in our power 
to spread the joyful tidings over all the 
world. We will not wait for arguments and 
figures to convince and move us. We will 
move at the impulse of Christ's love. We 
will try to seek the lost everywhere in re^ 
inembrance of him and of his directions. 
We will have in mind the fact that, inas- 
much as we do this to even the least, we do 
it unto him. 



TEMPERANCE. 

In all ages and in all lands intemperance 
has been the besetting sin of great multi- 
tudes. In yielding to it they have brought 
upon themselves calamities of body and of 
soul, while sorrow, destitution and crime 
have been the accompaniments and the re- 
sults of their sinful self-indulgence. The 
wise, the good, the philanthropic, every- 
where have raised their voices in warning, 
in pleading, in protestation. Something has 
been done to check the tide of misery. 
Many of the fallen have been uplifted, and 
many have been kept from falling. 

God's providential dealings with men 
have done much to point out the dangers 
and evils of a course of intemperance. His 
laws in the natural world have been en- 
forced, and men have seen that they could 
not go on in sin without receiving the pen- 
alty for it in their bodies. The bleared eye, 
the palsied nerve, the blotched face, the 
bloated frame, the feverish stomach and 
the maddened brain have always been the 
external marks of the drunkard, and while 
(216) 



Temperance. 217 



these have been physical signs testifying 
against him the ravages have been going 
on in his moral and religious nature, and 
at the same time his business, his home 
and his loved ones have suffered. 

Efforts to repress intemperance have 
been made everywhere and always. 
Throughout the whole Word of God are the 
solemn admonitions against the evil and 
destructive habits of using strong drink. 
The book of Proverbs, the prophecy of 
Isaiah, and, in fact, nearly every book of 
the Bible contains most earnest admoni- 
tion and instruction on this subject. 

Some people say that intemperance is so 
deadly to-day because of the fact that im- 
pure and poisonous liquor is used. Let it 
be understood that there is no pure liquor 
and that there never has been. Alcohol is 
the deadly poison that has always been 
sought for to make men drunk. All the 
other poisons used along with it are com- 
paratively harmless as compared with this. 
The loses and degradations over which the 
prophets and apostles wept and mourned 
were brought about by "pure" wine, and 
the apostle was led to write that, even 
under the influence of the pure wines of 
New Testament times and lands, the one 
(15) 



218 The Foursquare Christian. 

who became a drunkard should not inherit 
the kingdom cf heaven, while, so far as 
moral character was concerned, he classed 
him with extortioners and thieves. It is 
not a little danger, a little vice, or a little 
crime to form the habits and live the life 
of the drunkard. 

Laws have been made in almost endless 
variety for the limitation and extermina- 
tion of this evil. The study of temperance 
legislation is most interesting from one 
standpoint, while it is alternately encour- 
aging and disheartening. Laws have never 
entirely abated the evil, while ceaseless 
vigilance has been necessary for their en- 
forcement and continuance. Education 
has been continually necessary. Religious 
motives must be constantly pressed. Tem- 
perance societies and leagues and orders 
have done much. Business men are force- 
ful in demanding temperance and total ab- 
stinence in their employees. On the whole, 
advance is being made. The world stands 
on a higher temperance plane than it did 
a century ago. 

It would seem that there are no persons 
to raise their voices in favor of strong 
drink except the manufacturers and deal- 
ers, who have sold themselves for money 



Temperance. 219 



to work iniquity, on the one hand, and on 
the other the men who are slaves to their 
stomachs. All men who have regard for 
the well-being of their fellows, from a re- 
ligious, moral, patriotic, social, philan- 
thropic or economic standpoint, denounce 
the use of intoxicants as antagonistic to 
religion, good morals, physical health, fam- 
ily life, personal success and national pros- 
perity. One has but to open his eyes to 
see the damaging results of liquor drink- 
ing, and we have hope, founded on the in- 
telligence and conscience of the people, that 
the liquor traffic is to perish, 

The financial cost of liquor is astound- 
ing as measured by the money spent for it, 
the lives rendered useless and destroyed by 
it that might be productive, the poverty, 
disease, insanity and crime that are its di- 
rect products. Common sense would urge 
the destruction of the cause of so large 
a cost as comes to us by means of prisons, 
infirmaries and asylums. 

The whole matter of using alcohol as a 
drink or a medicine is a fallacy. Intem- 
perate men can not endure cold or heat or 
disease. Thousands of volumes are con- 
densed in this one statement of fact. The 
physician who prescribes it is behind the 



220 The Foursquare Christian. 

times, and the enemy of his patients. The 
mother who permits it in her home, as a 
drink for entertainment, or as an element 
in her food for seasoning, is foolish and 
criminal beyond the power of words to 
describe. 

Let Christian people be forceful in their 
influence against intemperance in any and 
every form. Alcoholic wine is scarcely 
ever brought to the communion table any- 
where. Liquor is banished from our sol- 
diers' canteens and should never, at the 
demand of dealers or drunkards, be re- 
stored. Let us drive it from all our homes. 
Let us expel it from our towns and counties 
and States. Let us be strong in our oppo- 
sition to it everywhere, vigilant, deter- 
mined and prayerful, and we can do some- 
thing to check the power and limit the in- 
fluence of this mighty evil. 



SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 

The importance of the work contemplated 
by the Sabbath-school can not be over- 
estimated. It is the religious education of 
the children of the country, many of these 
gathered in being from the families of the 
Church, but many of them coming from 
homes where no religious influences touch 
them. It is then to be counted on as one 
of the evangelizing agencies, and a fore- 
most purpose with its workers should be 
to secure the early conversion of the chil- 
dren who are under their influence, it may 
be, for only a little while. 

Whatever the form of the effort, the un- 
derlying thought and purpose is, the same 
everywhere, and that is, to reach and teach 
the children so that they shall come to 
know the truth of the gospel, and shall be 
led to accept savingly of Jesus Christ. In 
all dispensations of the Church, in Old 
Testament as well as New Testament times 
and since, there has always been some pro- 
vision for instructing the children, teach- 
ing them the reality and importance of sa- 
(221) 



222 The Foursquare Christian. 

cred things, and training them up in the 
nurture and admonition of the Lord. 

The fact that, owing to the heterogeneous 
nature of our population, there can be no 
religious training in our public schools as 
in some older lands, makes it all the more 
imperative that the Church shall put forth 
strenuous and unremitting efforts to teach 
the children the fear of the Lord. If the 
Bible can not be read in the public schools, 
it ought to be read all the more diligently 
at home and in the church in all its work. 
Let the Christian people realize that the 
home and the church are responsible for 
the spiritual training and salvation of the 
children. 

Much good is being done in the Sabbath- 
school. Immeasurably more might be done 
if the competency and spirituality of the 
whole Sabbath-school force were ideal. 
They are not. One hour a week, with an 
imperfect force of teachers, is not much, 
yet it is far better than nothing, and in 
many cases it has meant a revolutionized 
community, and many souls regenerated 
and trained for Christ. Let us not overrate 
the Sabbath-school. Especially let us not 
underrate it. Let us soberly, conscientious- 
ly and earnestly, do what we can to make 
it what it ought to be, and what it may be- 



Sabbath-school Work. 223 

come, under the blessing of God on the 
efforts of his loving-hearted people. 

The Sabbath-school is to be regarded not 
as an independent institution, but simply 
as one department of the Church. In it 
we see the Church exerting its activity in 
securing the important ends to which ref- 
erence has just been made. It may be that 
the Church is at work for the religious 
training of the children of its own fami- 
lies, providing for them a service adapted 
to their necessities, and calculated to be of 
great spiritual interest and advantage to 
them. It may be that the larger purpose 
is manifest in reaching the children of 
the entire vicinity and bringing them un- 
der the power of the gospel. It may be 
that the individual Church organizes and 
develops its own particular mission for the 
benefit of some neighborhood that needs 
this sort of spiritual care. It may be that 
the denomination has its missionary board 
for organizing Sabbath-schools on the fron- 
tiers that shall grow into churches after a 
time. 

Christian people should not be content 
to leave the religious training of their 
children to the Sabbath-school teacher, 
however competent and devoted, but should 
make the home the real training-school in 



224 The Foursquare Christian. 

piety. Nor should the Sabbath-school be 
the only church service for the children. 
They should be taken to the preaching- 
services and trained to attend on the 
preaching of the Word. After-results will 
vindicate the wisdom of this course. 

One person may have a good Sabbath- 
school. Of course it can not be as good 
as ten persons equally excellent can make, 
but it may be the means of great results. 
The superintendent may not have ideal 
teachers, but if he be a wise and good man 
he may animate the whole school, arouse 
within it a deep interest in and knowledge 
of spiritual things, and may lead both 
scholars and teachers into a better and a 
personal acquaintance with Jesus Christ. 



YOUNG PEOPLE. 

The young people of the Church call for 
and require particular attention in order 
that their religious life may be properly 
nurtured and that they may be developed 
in their powers of Christian activity and 
usefulness. The period lying between 
childhood and maturity demands special at- 
tention. During recent years much inter- 
est has been felt in the organization and 
work of young people's societies, and much 
has been done along these lines, a great 
deal of which has been worthy of the high- 
est commendation. 

It is not so much a matter of the suc- 
cess of any particular society or organiza- 
tion. The primary object is the welfare of 
the young people themselves and the 
Church. That society is good which sets 
the young people to work in the study of 
the Scriptures, in the holding of devotional 
meetings, in the activities of the home 
Church, in the study and giving to mis- 
sions and other causes of the Church, and 
in efforts to secure the evangelization of 
the community in which they live. The 
( 225 ) 



226 The Foursquare Christian. 

young people are no longer children. They 
will soon be the adults, and they should 
learn to take up the devotional, financial 
and social work of the Church in a spir- 
itual, practical and effective manner. 

The young people are soon to be older. 
They may stave off some of the signifl- 
cancy of the inevitable by retaining young 
hearts, but they must grow into maturity, 
and into old age, if they live. Out of their 
ranks are to come the officers and leaders 
of the Church, the Sabbath-school teachers 
and workers. The wise pastor will have 
this fact in view, and will seek to train 
them in Bible knowledge, in church work, 
in Christian giving, in missionary interest 
and in philanthropic activity. The wise 
and good pastor is busying himself in these 
directions. His young people are in his 
heart and in his prayers. He leads them 
and loves them. Happy is the pastor who 
has his quiver full of them. 

He is a strange pastor, or strangely sit- 
uated, who does not find his young people 
ready to be led. Ordinarily the young 
people who are Christians are not only en- 
thusiastic workers and students, but they 
are pliable and docile in the hands of a 
true and good pastor. Mr. Spurgeon used 



Young People, 227 

to say that he had far less trouble with the 
persons who united with the church before 
they were sixteen years of age than he did 
with those who united later in life. This 
is the general experience of pastors. Where 
it is not, there is something wrong. Either 
some abnormal influence is at work among 
the young people of that particular congre- 
gation, or else there is something wrong 
in the spirit or manner of the pastor. In 
either case ' the evil should be discovered 
and remedied. 

Pastor and young people should be in 
most sympathetic touch. The good pastor 
will try to do something for each young 
person in his congregation in giving him 
something to do, or he will take general 
notice of the work of the young people, 
commending it, taking part in it and de- 
veloping it, and he will seek to be with the 
young people as far as is possible, in their 
meetings and in the events of their social 
life. But he will be discouraged if they 
do not meet him half way at least. If we 
had sufficient influence we would constrain 
all the young people to attend the preach- 
ing services. It is depressing and disheart- 
ening to the pastor to see them assembled 
in their meeting, in which they have per- 



228 The Foursquare Christian. 

haps had the help of his presence and as- 
sistance, and then deliberately walk away 
from the evening service as though they 
had no interest in the welfare of the 
church and no regard for the feelings of 
the pastor. Where this is done it should 
come to an end, or the best results are 
an utter impossibility. 

Because some particular pastor is not 
enthusiastic over some special organiza- 
tion which seeks to control his young peo- 
ple is no argument that he does not care 
for his young people. It may be an evi- 
dence that he is particularly careful of 
them and their interests. Whether his 
judgment on all points may be sound or 
not is another matter. He wishes his 
young people to be growing and working, 
intelligent in faith and loyal in life. It 
may be that his principal objection to the 
organization is the danger that it may di- 
vide their interest, dissipate their energies, 
and distract their attention from local and 
actual interests to those that are of sec- 
ondary importance. There has been a 
great deal of attention given, of late years, 
to conventions, many of which have been 
of no particular advantage. 

The young men and young women of 



Young People. 229 

the Church of to-day have had much given 
to them, and from them much, rightfully, 
will be required. They should bear them- 
selves with intelligence, piety and gravity 
in the life and work of the kingdom of 
Christ. They do not need to be petted and 
indulged, and they should not look for nor 
expect such treatment. They should put 
away childish things and bestir themselves 
as those whom God is calling to sob^r and 
serious service, which they are to render 
in the spirit of exalted and joyous self-sur- 
render. 



MEN'S LEAGUES. 

It is fitting and proper that the men of 
a particular church should be banded to- 
gether for the sake of more intimate fel- 
lowship and more practical efficiency. All 
the other elements of the congregation are, 
or may be, thus organized. The women 
have their missionary and aid societies and 
prayer-meetings. The children have their 
mission bands and junior young people's 
societies. The young people have their En- 
deavor or similar organizations. In many 
congregations there is a Boys' Brigade or 
a band of some name for the young men 
and boys. 

In recent years men's leagues have been 
started in many congregations, and often- 
times with happy results. Of course, in 
order to be worth while, the end in view in 
such an organization must be of sufficient 
dignity and importance to compensate for 
the time and effort required. It does take 
much effort for the men to carry on such 
a work. Busy and engrossed as they are, 
they are asked to attend one more meet- 
ing, and there devise some form of effort 
( 230 ) 



Men's Leagues. 231 

to add to the attractiveness and efficiency 
of the Church. But let the appeal be made 
to the Christian manhood of the Church, 
and it will be sure to meet with a response. 

There is only one sufficiently important 
end to be aimed at, and that is the con- 
version of souls and the spiritual uplift of 
the people. Let this motive be lovingly 
presented, and there will be men to ac- 
knowledge its power and enroll themselves 
to work unitedly to secure the spiritual 
welfare of those whom they may lead to 
Christ and to a place in his Church. 

Sometimes the special work undertaken 
is that of developing the Sabbath-evening 
service and helping to make it a more thor- 
oughly evangelistic service. When the men 
rally to the assistance of the pastor it is 
as when Aaron and Hur upheld the hands 
of Moses. They advertise the meeting as 
the one for which they are especially re- 
sponsible. They have a program, or order 
of services, printed, it may be, and distrib- 
uted during the week and through the con- 
gregation. They invite people. They act 
as ushers, with hearty friendliness. They 
help to add new features to the service of 
praise. In the after-meeting they distrib- 
ute cards of invitation to Christ, get the 



232 The Foursquare Christian. 

names of those who manifest interest, 
speak to them of Christ or introduce them 
to the pastor, and in many ways seek the 
spiritual welfare of the people of the com- 
munity. 

They may have their own ways of going 
about these matters. The essential thing 
is to have an interest aroused for the work, 
and then to do it. It is not necessary to 
have the particular name or constitution 
that some other league may have. The 
brotherhoods of Andrew and Philip have 
been very efficient in many churches, but 
the matter of greatest importance is for 
men to have the spirit of these two early 
disciples who led their own brothers to 
Jesus Christ, and they will find just the 
right and best way to do it. 

There may be monthly meetings for con- 
sultation, business, discussion, social greet- 
ing and prayer. An occasional supper to- 
gether, at which the work of the league, of 
the church, and of the great kingdom of 
Christ may be talked over, will prove to 
be of great attractiveness and helpfulness. 
The great animating purpose of each league 
must be that of leading souls to Christ and 
upbuilding the Church. 



WOMAN AND HER WORK. 

Woman's religious work has always been 
a very important element in the life and 
progress of Christianity. This is not sur- 
prising. We would naturally expect one- 
half of the adult membership of the church 
at any time to be composed of women, 
and at least one-half of the attendance on 
religious services, and of the interest and 
prayer and work of the church, to come 
from them. That they have more than 
fulfilled what might have been expected 
from them shows that they have more gen- 
erally than men realized the goodness of 
God in the Gospel and accepted the grace 
and service of the Redeemer, 

When the Gospel was first preached it 
won some of its earliest adherents among 
women. Many of the early followers of 
Christ were women. The Marys and Mar- 
thas sat at his feet and ministered to his 
needs. We find in the Gospels many no- 
tices of women who were interested in fol- 
lowing Christ. Some of these were the 
last at the cross and the earliest at the 
sepulchre. Among the disciples which 
( 10 ) ( 233 ) 



234 The Foursquare Christian. 

Christ left on earth at his ascension were 
many women. Among those who turned 
to him at the preaching of the apostles in 
heathen lands, we find such names as 
Dorcas and Damaris, Lois and Eunice, 
Phebe and Priscilla, Junia and Julia. Many 
of these were active in the work of the 
Lord, and the Apostle Paul was urgent that 
they should be helped in their holy la- 
bors. 

That the Gospel should be accepted by 
so many women who honored Christ b* 
serving him lovingly, was a credit to the 
women and a testimony to the power and 
purity of the Gospel. It was such a system 
as commended itself to their best ideas and 
instincts. It is to-day just such a law and 
rule of life as commends itself, in its purity 
and kindness and sweetness and nobility, 
to all thai is best in the hearts of women 
everywhere. It promises well to them- 
selves and to their families and home life, 
and to the future of their sons and their 
daughters. 

Wherever the Gospel has been accepted 
it has proved a blessing to women. It 
has found them slaves and degraded in 
nearly every land under the sun. It has 
changed their condition from that of the 
slaves or toys of men into that of honored 



Woman's Work. 235 

and beloved equals. It has changed the 
ideas that exist in regard to women in 
heathen land, as that they have no souls, 
into the exalted conceptions that charac- 
terize the holy religion of Jesus Christ. 
Women m all Christian lands are great 
debtors to the Christian religion, and they 
should show their appreciation of what 
it has done for them by being faithful fol- 
lowers of Christ. 

Woman's work is to be done, in a very 
large and important sense, in the homa 
Nothing can take the place of the loving 
and prayerful influence of the Christian 
woman in that realm where she reigns as 
queen. There is no department in life 
where she is so greatly needed. The 
world is an immeasurable loser when the 
home-life is interfered with by women be- 
ing taken from home by duties or attrac- 
tions in any other realm of life. The 
natural and divine law is that man shall 
make the living and that woman shall 
make the home. The breach of this law 
works disaster. The Christian wife, mother, 
sister and daughter exerts an influence 
for Christ in her home, if she will, that 
the Church and the world need, and with- 
out which society is in most deadly and im- 
minent peril. 



236 The Foursquare Christian. 

Woman's work in the church is done in 
attendance on church services; in the in- 
struction of the Sabbath-school; in the 
prayer services and other devotional serv- 
ices of the church; in the social organiza- 
tions and ministrations whereby the life 
and influence of the church are advanced; 
and in the immeasurably useful and ag- 
gressive operations of the temperance and 
missionary societies, by means of which 
Christian women of to-day are accomplish- 
ing so much good in the name of Christ. 
They are to be appreciated and commend- 
ed for the forceful, patient and determined 
spirit in which they are prosecuting their 
work in these great departments of needed 
Christian effort. 

In comparatively recent years the wom- 
en have organized their missionary socie- 
ties with the special thought of giving the 
Gospel to the women of heathen lands. Of 
course, the whole missionary movement 
has been comparatively modern. But one 
great difficulty that has met our mission- 
aries in many eastern lands has been the 
inaccessibility of the women. In many 
of the castes of India, for instance, it has 
been found impossible for male mission- 
aries to meet the women. There has grown 
up the department of Christian effort in 



Woman's Work. 237 

modern times in which women mission- 
aries have met the native women in their 
homes, and m which native Bible-reading 
women have been trained to go to other 
women with the glad message of the Gos- 
pel. For all that has been done in this 
direction we may be profoundly grateful. 
The Gospel is winning its way in heathen 
lands, to no inconsiderable degree, by 
means of the consecrated efforts of Chris- 
tian women, who are telling their sisters 
of the glad message of life and love. 

It is well for the women of Christian 
iands, young and old; to take an increasing 
interest in the welfare of the women in 
heathen lands. Here is a branch of Chris- 
tian work to which they may give them- 
selves without hesitation. They may raise 
money to send the Gospel to those who are 
perishing. Many of them may go as teach- 
ers and physicians to those who need their 
living touch in the name of Christ. Many 
a* them who go as the wives of preaching 
missionaries will find abundant opportuni- 
ties of reachmg and helping to save the 
wives and mothers, the sisters and daugh- 
ters In those dark lands to which the* 
carry the light of the saving love and truth 
of Christ. 



WHAT KIND OF A CHURCH? 

We have seen a couplet which all church 
members are exhorted to repeat and sing, 
to dream over and think over and pray 
over. They are in the form of a question. 
We do not know who wrote them, but it 
would be a good thing if every man and 
woman and child in the whole country 
would answer them. They are: 

What kind of a church would our church be 
If every member were just like me? 

They are easily learned. They are easily 
remembered. A study of them by each 
member of each church would be equal in 
effect to a whole week's evangelistic service 
in every church of the land. Suppose we 
all repeat them together, once more: 
What kind of a church would our church be 
If every member were just like me? 

How about church attendance? A reg- 
ular, church-attending congregation has a 
commanding influence in the community, 
grows in numbers and power, prbfits from 
the preaching of the Word, honors God 
and is honored by him. On the other hand, 
(238) 



What Kind of a Churchf 239 

in a church where there is irregular and 
straggling attendance, there is little prog- 
ress made in building up the church, or in 
having an influence for good in the com- 
munity; the minister becomes discouraged 
because his work is not appreciated, and his 
efforts largely go for nothing; the in- 
dividual members gain but little, and re- 
ligion is at a standstill. How about it? 
Let each individual ask himself whether he 
is a model in respect to his duty at the 
church services, the Sabbath-school and 
the prayer-meeting. If he is faithful, then 
he is doing what he can to honor God 
and increase the attendance at the sanc- 
tuary. If he is irregular, and all should 
follow his example, there would be little 
manifestation of life in the house of God. 
How about the financial work? In every 
church there is anxious thought and con- 
triving on the part of the officers as to the 
financial outcome each year. There are 
some members who are thoughtful and 
faithful in their financial obligations, but 
there are some who seem to have no sense 
of responsibility. Each member of the 
church knows, or should know, just about 
what is needed to pay the annual expenses 
of the congregation. Whatever any one 



240 The Foursquare Christian. 

fails to do, of his own rightful share, must 
be made up by some one else, or the church 
must suffer loss and shame. Let each 
member determine that his church shall 
never suffer from his own neglect, but that 
he will do his own full and honest duty 
financially. 

How about the maintenance of family re- 
ligion? A church has as much spirituality 
as its homes. If parents are faithful to 
instruct their children, to train them up 
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, 
to keep up family worship, to pray for and 
with the children, and to take them to 
God's house and to set before them a godly 
example, there will be no difficulty about 
those children following them and becom- 
ing faithful followers of Jesus Christ. But 
if these things are neglected, the children 
will be scattered as the children of Eli, and 
the house of the ark of God will be ne- 
glected and deserted. 

How about a consistent Christian life 
before the world? There are always, in 
every church, those who may be depended 
upon to maintain the cause of Christ. They 
are faithful in every duty, and they live 
consistently and faithfully before the world 
as Christians should. Others bring shame 



What Kind of a Church? 241 

upon the cause of Christ by lives that are 
not in accordance with their profession, 
or the ordinary laws of rectitude. They are 
a grief to their fellow Christians. Instead 
of being avenues of approach for Christ 
into the hearts of those around them, they 
are barriers to keep him away from them, 
and to keep them unsaved. Let each one 
ask himself, in the sight of God, what posi- 
tion he is taking before the world. 

The Church is divinely instituted for the 
purpose of reaching the world. It is to be 
sustained by our personal labors, our at- 
tendance, our money, our prayers and the 
zealous and studied efforts of our lives to 
do God's will. Some in every church seem 
to do their whole duty. Some seem to have 
little sense of responsibility. It would be 
well if each one would think over and act 
upon the question: 

What kind of a church would our church be 
If every member were just like me? 



CALLS TO THE MINISTRY. 

The young men who will enter the the- 
ological, seminaries during the next few 
years to make special preparation for the 
work of the ministry are now, for the most 
part, in the colleges, academies and high 
schools of the land. A few exceptional 
cases may be developed outside this group 
of young men, but it is evident that our 
main supply must come from those who are 
now students in various grades of prepara- 
tion in these institutions just mentioned. 

We would like to gain the attention of 
these young men, and speak to them a few 
warm-hearted words as to the attractions 
of the Gospel ministry. We would like 
to open up the way for God's call to this 
important and delightful work to reach 
the heart of some who might not other- 
wise hear or heed that call. For God is 
calling the choicest and best, the manliest 
and noblest, the strongest and the most 
excellent to take up this supereminent 
work. Those who understand and obey 
that call will thereby find usefulness, hap- 
(242) 



Calls to the Ministry. 243 

piness and success as we do not believe 
they can find it elsewhere. 

We do not underrate any business in 
which good men serve God and do their 
duty, but we do place the ministry for 
usefulness and satisfaction at the very 
head of all the positions in which men 
may pass their days. Ahead of all material, 
commercial, political, intellectual or social 
interests is the spiritual work of advanc- 
ing the kingdom of God, and he who is 
actually and personally engaged in this 
work directly is doing the very highest and 
most important thing in which he can pos- 
sibly be engaged. 

It is the duty of every individual to be a 
Christian, devoting himself to God's ser- 
vice, and, as a steward, realizing that all 
his time, property, faculties and social in- 
fluence are to be held and used only as 
Christ would have them used and because 
they all belong to Christ. If we settle 
this matter of a thoroughly consecrated 
Christian life, we will be prepared to set- 
tle all the particulars of it as God gives 
us light on them. It is because so many 
undertake to make their choices in life in- 
dependently of God's guidance that they 
fail so deplorably. 



244 The Foursquare Christian. 

Every Christian young man should, first 
of all, be very clear in his own mind that 
he is not called into the ministry before 
he makes choice of some other life-work. 
The needs of the church for good ministers 
are so many and so great that no Christian 
young man should be indifferent to them. 
If God does not want him in this work, of 
course that settles it, but one should be 
very careful to know that God does not 
want him before he turns his back on the 
work of the ministry. 

Of course if there are insuperable ob- 
stacles in the way, God does not demand 
that one accomplish impossibilities. If one 
has no health, no money, no friends, no 
strength of mind, no power of speech, or 
if he has impediments of mind or body 
that would bar his way, he is of course not 
called to this work in which large qualifi- 
cations are demanded in order to any real 
s/uccess. 

Sometimes, however, one is deterred 
when he should not be by mere fancied 
lacks. Moses held back and said he could 
uot speak, but God knew best, and forced 
him to his work. It proved that Moses 
never had any real difficulty when the time 
came. Many a young man thinks that he 



Calls to the Ministry. 245 

can not prepare great sermons, and hangs 
back from the work of the ministry, but 
if he gives himself to Christ and his ser- 
vice he will be able to preach by the time 
he gets through with his long course of 
preparation. The boy can not cure a fever 
or a broken limb, but by the time he be- 
comes a physician he will have learned 
The boy can not conduct a case in court, 
but he can by the time he is through with 
the law school and has become an attorney. 
It is not well to cross a bridge until it is 
reached. If God calls one to preach, he will 
be able, when the time comes, to prepare 
the sermon. Never let him fear. 

Nor is the financial question one to cause 
dread. It costs something, of course, to> 
take the educational course for the min- 
istry, but how much it shall cost depends 
largely on the one taking it, and it is pos- 
sible to almost any one who has real man- 
hood. Instead of thinking it impossible, 
let a young man consult his pastor or some 
other intelligent and capable friend and he 
will be surprised to find how difficulties 
may be made to vanish. 

Hundreds of young men are hesitating 
in regard to their future work in life. We 
would ask them to consider, very ser- 



246 The Foursquare Christian. 

iously, whether they are not called into 
the ministry. There is no work like this 
in all the world, for the opportunities af- 
forded for doing good and for the abound- 
ing satisfaction coming to those who do it. 
If we had the ordering of it, we would 
select hundreds of Christian young men 
who are going into various forms of busi- 
ness life, and would start them to make 
special preparation for the ministry right 
away. But we have no such ordering, and 
we might make many mistakes. But the 
Lord has the right to order our lives, and 
we fear greatly that many young men who 
are being called by him into the ministry 
are disregarding his call and disobeying 
the heavenly vision, and that they will 
reap regret in coming days for not listen- 
ing and being willing to be led. 

The ministry is not a great business, if 
by this is meant an opportunity for 
amassing great worldly wealth. But this 
is a petty consideration. A minister, who 
was also a great educator, completing fifty 
years in this work, said he was thankful 
that he had been permitted to live without 
having been agitated by the pursuit of ma- 
terial wealth. A good and faithful minis- 
ter will always be provided for. He will 



Calls to the Ministry. 247 

have influence for good, he will be the 
means of affecting the spiritual, moral and 
intellectual life of the community, he will 
have social position, he will have the rev- 
erence, love and gratitude of the people. 
These things are above price, and they can 
not be purchased by money. The ministry 
is better than a great business. It is a 
great calling, and he is thrice blessed to 
whom God comes in his providence and 
grace, opening up the way before him for 
entrance into this noble and distinguished 
service, in which one may glorify God in 
seeking the spiritual welfare of his fellow- 
men. 

The ministry needs strong, good, wise, 
manly men. There is room for them. It 
is possible for such men to find their way 
into the work. Those who are really 
worthy and capable men will find satisfac- 
tion in the work, and delightful compensa- 
tions such as ihey never had previously 
imagined. 



CONCLUSION. 



"Let us hear the conclusion of the 

whole matter; Fear God, and keep his 

commandments, for this is the whole 

duty of man." — Ecclesiastes xii. 13. 
• * • 

"And Jesus answered him: The 
-first of all the commandments is, 
Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is 
one Lord; And thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, 
and with all thy strength/' — Mark 
xii. 29, 50. 



PERSONAL RELIGION. 

The Christian is one who has a personal 
relationship with Christ. He loves, trusts 
and follows Christ. By virtue of this per- 
sonal relationship, he is and has a right 
to be known as a Christian. The name is 
definite, not miscellaneous: and it is based 
upon a definite covenant-right, and a 
definite relationship with Jesus Christ. 

Religion is a personal matter. It is not 
a mere system of ethics. It does not merely 
concern itself with good conduct. There 
must be vastly more than good morals in 
a truly Christian life. There must be a 
disposition to take God into the account 
in everything that enters into the life. All 
must be done in respect to him and his 
wish. Mere morality or correctness of life 
does not satisfy. A gentleman said, at one 
time, that he did not conceive it his duty 
to try to serve God personally, nor did he 
believe that God so required, but that if 
he did as he ought in his own life, and 
in reference to his fellow-men, nothing 
more could be asked or required of hfrn. 
(17 ) ( 249 ) 



250 The Foursquare Christian. 

This gentleman had a very pleasant home 
and a family of very nice children. He was 
asked what he would think if his children 
should leave him entirely out of their plans 
and hearts, and should conceive that their 
only duty at home was to treat one another 
with affectionate regard and to live and 
act correctly, but with no recognition of, 
affection or care for the father. He saw 
that such an attitude on the part of the 
children would be most unnatural, and that 
no home is properly constituted in which 
the parents are disregarded and filial feel- 
ings uncultivated by the children. Even 
so is it with us in reference to God. We 
must not think that morality will satisfy 
God, while in our hearts there is no regard 
for him. 

Religion is a personal matter. It is not 
a mere matter of ceremonial worship. It 
will not answer for one to attend church, 
and be interested in its services, and help 
financially to sustain it, and cultivate feel- 
ings of admiration for the appropriate 
music, architecture and social life of the 
church. All of this may be very refining 
and elevating, but something more is neces- 
sary. The soul must appreciate God as the 
personal, unseen object of faith and adora- 



Personal Religion. 251 

tion, and toward him the spiritual worship 
of the heart must arise. It is possible for 
one to be a mere formalist, as it is possible 
for him to be a mere moralist. He may 
enjoy, esthetically, the worship, and at the 
same time may not worship God. But if 
he does not take hold of God in holy ador- 
ation, he is among the unblessed ones who 
draw nigh in bodily presence and with 
their lips, while their hearts are far from 
him and their lives unsaved by his grace. 

Religion is a personal matter, of love and 
trust. It is not a mere matter of believing 
sound doctrine. One may be a very zealot 
for the form of sound words in doctrine, 
as he may be exact in architecture, mathe- 
matics or rhetoric, and yet may not be 
spiritually affected and saved. One must 
do more than believe the truth about God. 
He must accept and trust God himself as 
he comes to him in the person of Jesus 
Christ. Without this one gets no good 
from the truth, whose main purpose is to 
make God known to us, so that we may 
know him, worship him, love and ser^ 
him. 

We sing such hymns as, "I am trusting 
thee, Lord Jesus, trusting only thee," "I 
am thine, Lord, I have heard thy voice/' 



252 The Foursquare Christian. 

"1 belong to Jesus," and "Jesus, lover of my 
soul, let me hide myself in thee"; and these 
are the true expressions of the faith that 
abides in the heart of the true child of 
God. Love is not a mere abstraction. It 
can not be. It exists only as one person 
loves another. It is found in its highest 
form as one loves God. Where this relig- 
ious love is lacking out of the heart, the 
highest and holiest element of life is want- 
ing. This is religion. This is life eternal. 
This is knowing the only true God and 
Jesus Christ whom he has sent. 



DO WB WISH A REVIVAL? 

From all directions come reports of sea- 
sons of refreshing, conversions and ingath- 
erings into the Church. The old Gospel 
has not lost its power. It is still the 
means which God employs in the work of 
saving souls. Human beings need the Gos- 
pel to-day just as truly as they did a cen- 
tury or ten centuries ago. They are no 
more outgrowing their need of it than they 
are outgrowing their need for water and 
pure air. It is demanded by their spiritual 
natures as air and water and light are de- 
manded by their bodies. 

This age is not essentially different from 
all preceding ages. We have made some 
inventions and discoveries, and we know 
how to plow and sow and harvest more 
rapidly than our fathers did, and how to 
travel faster and farther, and how to shoot 
longer and larger guns, and how to make 
money more rapidly by means of trusts and 
combines; but these are only outside mat- 
ters, as changes in the fashions of gar- 
ments are external affairs. People have 
(253) 



254 The Foursquare Christian. 

worn clothes in other ages, and they have 
raised grain very well, and have traveled 
sufficiently, and have made war all too well. 
In all essential particulars people are to- 
day just what they always have been, with 
the same human needs and frailties. Un- 
derneath the coat of any cut or color is 
the throbbing physical heart, and under all 
the changing culture of all the ages is the 
universal need of the human soul for the 
grace and salvation of Christ. 

To have a longing for the salvation of 
others is one of the marks of a renewed 
soul. The one who has no such desire is 
not a child of God. He is still unawakened, 
unsaved, a member of the kingdom of self- 
ishness and sin and death. Those who 
have had an experience of the goodness of 
God, and who have come to know the joy 
of deliverance and hope, and who know 
the terrible future of those who are un- 
saved, are anxious that others may also be 
saved. This longing is impressed on their 
souls by the Holy Spirit. Bach converted 
soul is commissioned to bring others to 
Christ. 

When the sense of spiritual things is 
strong and clear in the heart of Christians, 



Bo We Wish a Revival? 255 

as it is in a time of spiritual quickening 
or revival, there comes an unusually 
strong desire for the salvation of the un- 
converted. Let a church be really revived 
and souls will be sure to be saved. The 
tongues of Christians will be unloosed and 
they will speak plainly and lovingly, and 
invite others to come to Christ. It comes 
to be easy to do so at such times. 

It is often a surprise to them too when 
they find that men and women are ready to 
respond to their invitations, and that it is 
easy to them to yield themselves to Christ. 
But when Christian people are themselves 
aroused they find that many persons are 
just ready to accept the Savior. The Holy 
Spirit is doing his work in both classes of 
hearts, and when a church is ready to re- 
ceive others in the name of Christ, they 
will find them coming. 

The two things most needed in any 
church where the Bible is believed and 
where the Gospel is preached are prayer 
and invitation. God is to be called on in 
prayer for his blessing on human hearts, 
and those around us are to be invited to 
come to God. We are to plead with God 
for the people, and with the people for God. 
Where one person Is earnestly engaged ia 



256 The Foursquare Christian. 

both these, a revival is going on; when 
several are doing it, we shall find always 
that the church is having a mighty revival. 
If we long for a revival, we may have it 

God is ready to bless and glorify his 
church. He gives us oft-repeated assur- 
ances of his readiness to save. His prom- 
ises may be relied on. They are yea, and 
in Christ Jesus they are amen. He is ready 
to open the windows of heaven and pour 
out a blessing that there shall not be room 
enough to receive. Each moment is the 
time of God's loving and gracious power. 
Let our prayer be to him and our de- 
pendence upon him. As we come prayer- 
fully and trustfully to him in loving, 
Christian experience, worship, faith and 
service, he in his grace will send through 
us to others the mighty outpourings of his 
power to save. 



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